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MEMOIR 



DUCHESS OF OELEANS. 



MAEQUESS DE g 



gv C6U y ■ t- , |. ^^aoi/v-vgiL. VJw uJ 



TOGETHER WITH 



BIOGRAPHICAL SOUYEl^IRS kW OEIGmAL LETTERS. 



CO:^LECTm) BY 

PROF. a?'H5>l)E SCHUBERT. 



TRANSLATED FROM TEE FRENCH. 



NEW YORK : 
OHAELES SOEIBNEE, 124 GEAND STEEET. 

1860. 



^ 






Kntehed, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1S60, by 

CHAELES SCEIBNEE, 

In the Cleric's Oflice of the District Court of the United States 

for the Southern District of New York. 






^/^ 



TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. 

The ebaracter of the Duchess of Orleans is one of such 
remarkable loveliness, and shines with such radiant lustre 
in the midst of the French Court, and in the subsequent 
trials to which she was subjected after the downfall of 
Louis Philippe, that it is worthy of the most careful 
study. While translating her most interesting Memoir 
by the Marquess de H , which had such well-de- 
served success in France and England, another work upon 
the same subject and of additional interest, by her tutor, 
Prof, de Schubert, fell into my hands. The style of the two 
authors is so different, and her character looked at from 
such different points of view, that it has been deemed ad- 
visable to unite the two Memoirs in one volume, for the 
I'cason that the originals are not likely to fall into the 
hands of the general reader. The following interesting 
account of Prof, de Schubert and his Life of the Duchess 
may be found in Monsieur Grirard's preface to his able 
French translation : — 

" In 1816, Prof de Schubert was appointed preceptor to 
the children of the Duke of Mecklenburg Schwerin. En- 
dowed with a superior mind, extensive information, and a 
profoundly religious and sympathetic character, he needed 



4 TKAJSTSLATOE S PREFACE. 

a sojourn of only three years in that household to render 
his memory ever precious. Shortly after leaving L\id- 
wigslust to occupy the chair of natural science at the 
University of Erlangen, the young princess Helen solicited 
a correspondence with him, which only ended with her 
life. After a sojourn of eight years at Erlangen, Prof, de 
Schubert became a professor in the University of Munich, 
and received the honor of a membership with the Academy 
of Sciences. 

" The long career of Prof, de Schubert has been marked 
by numerous publications upon the natural sciences, theo- 
logical questions, instructive biographies, narrations, etc. 
All the works of the former Professor of Ludwigslust 
much interested the Duchess of Orleans, who gratefully 
acknowledged them ; those which most attracted her were 
upon his religious views, containing his profound medita- 
tions upon the nature of the soul and its relations with 
God. By the side of the interesting biography of the 

Marquess de H , this work appears to offer a triple 

source of interest. First, the more complete information 
concerning the education of the princess up to her mar- 
riage. Second, the publication of about twenty-four let- 
ters or fragments of letters written in German, addressed to 
Prof, de Schubert, the grand duchess, or a youthful friend. 
Finally, and most important, the exclusively religious 
point of view of the author, which is in perfect harmony 
with the convictions of the Duchess of Orleans." 



CONTENTS. 



' •>« 

PART I. 

MEMOIR, BY THE MAEQUESS DE H : 

»— 

PAGE 
I. 

Birth of the princess Helen — Death of her mother — Marriage of her father 
to the princess Augusta of Hamburg — Development of the princess' 
heart and mind — Death of a young friend — Presentation to the court 
of Weimar — Confirmation in 1830 — Death of her brother Prince Albert 9 

II. 

The dulse of Orleans' negotiation for marriage with the princess Helen — 
Departure for France (1837) — Eeception in France 22 

III. 
Letters from the duchess— Birth of the count de Paris — Birth of the duke 
de Chartres — Letters 83 

IV. 
Failure of the health of the duchess— Sojourn at Plombi&res— Sudden death 
of the duke of Orleans 43 

V. 

Hope of the duchess in God — Letters 57 

YI. 

Kevolution of the 24th of February — Escape from France 70 

YIL 
Letters from Eisenach and elsewhere — Sojourn in England — ^Death of Louis 
Philippe and the queen of the Belgians — Kesideuce at Kitley. 92 

YIIL 

Eesidence at Thames-Ditton— Letters— Illness of the duchess 126 

Last will and testament of the duchess 148 



CONTENTS. 



PART II. 

BIOGBAPHICAL SOUVENIKS AND OKIGINAL LETTERS COL- 
LECTED BY PEOF. G. H. DE SCHUBERT. 



PAGE 
I. 

The way of life— Birth of the princess, January 24, 1814— Death of her 
mother, February 20, 1816— Gelations of the author with the grand 
duke's family 151 

II. 
The vine stock in the garden — The new mother — Letter of the princess at 
nine years of age 157 

III. 
The happy inspiration— Character of Helen— Her first friend 164 

IV. 

Friedensburg — Retired life of the grand duchess — M. Eennecke, precep- 
tor to the princess — Order of the day and daily tasks — Method of edu- 
cation — Maternal solicitude — Mademoiselle Nancy Solomon — Circle of 
Friedensburg — Harmony of views — Letters from the period of child- 
hood—Journey of Prince Albert, and sojourn in Switzerland— A poem 168 

V. 
Joy and sorrow— Death of Ida de Bassewitz— Confirmation— Poems of her 
early youth 187 

VI. 

A new school of life— Letter from Friedensburg— Journey into Switzerland 
and return into her country — Four new letters 191 

VIL 
Shadows and lights— Illness of the gi-and duchess— Sojourn at the baths of 
Tceplitz— King Frederick William III. of Prussia— Intellectual pleas- 
ures at Dresden and Jena — Precursory symptoms of a change of fortune 
— Disquietade with regard to the life of Prince Albert— Last letter from 
the prince (1833)— His illness at Ludwigslust— His death (October 18, 
1834) — ^Letter from his sister 207 



CONTENTS. 7 

PAGE 

VIII. 

Life a dream — New future — Visit of the duke of Orleans at Berlin — Illness 
of the princess — Opposition to the marriage — Departure from Mecklen- 
burg — Arrival in France 224 

IX. 

First interview — Marriage — Impression that the new duchess produced., . . 231 

X. 
Louis Philippe in the family circle — Sketch of the king's youth — The July 
revolution — Members of his family 240 

XL 
New life of the family — Circle of Neuilly — Family fetes — Happiness and 
humility , 243 

XII. 

Letter written in a garden — Souvenir to the address of an old friend 253 

XIIL 
The voice of filial gratitude — Eeturn of the grand duchess from Mecklen- 
burg to Ludwigslust— First letter of the duchess of Orleans to her 
mother (1837)— Family life at the court of France 257 

XIV. 
Birth of the count de Paris (August 24, 1838)— Letters from the duchess to 
her mother and the author — Joy of the royal family — Departure of the 
duke of Orleans for Algiers (1839)— The duchess accompanies him to the 
place of his embarkment — Sympathy of the Protestants — Tolerance of 
Louis Philippe— Letters from the duchess (1840)— Birth of the duke 
de Chartres (November 9, 1840) 268 

XV. 

Enigma of the present life — ^A year of trials (1842)— Death of the brother 
of the duchess (March 7)— The duke of Orleans accompanies the duch- 
ess to Plombi^res— Death of the duke (July 13, 1842)— Letter to the 
grand duchess, written before the catastrophe — The arrival at Plom- 
bi^res — Grief of the duchess— Letter to her mother — General sympa- 
thy — Letter written from Eu to the author 289 

XVI. 

Day Dawns— Letter to her mother, dated Dreus (1843)— Christmas festival 
— Anniversary of the duke's death (1844) — The new year of 1845 — Ex- 
tracts from various letters written to the grand duchess 300 



b CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

XVII. 

Progress of outward life— Affection of the people for the duchess — Conso- 
lations in her children — Taried relations — Yisit of Mademoiselle Eant- 
zau — Letters written in 1846 and 1848— Solicitude of the duchess in the 
education of her children 309 

SVIII. 
The February revolution and its consequences — The 24th of February — 
Flight from Paris — Short stay at the waters of Ems — Letter to the aw 
thor — Arrival at Eisenach 882 

XIX. 
Information derived from the best source — Eespect of the Parisian people 
for the exiled duchess —Visits— Maternal joys — Voyage to England and 
confirmation of the count de Paris (1850) — Death of Louis Philippe — 
Profound retirement and inward peace (1851) — Gratitude in the midst 
of trial 840 

XX. 
Consolation and new trials 347 

XXI. 

Foretaste of the terrors of death — Horizon overclouded (1852, 1853) — Jour- 
ney and sojourn in Switzerland — Deliverance from a great danger — 
Letter from the duchess 355 

XXIL 
New Pilgrimage — Need of repose and isolation — Maternal enjoyments — 
Subsequent griefs —The Crimea campaign — Letter from Eisenach, (Jan- 
nary, 1855) — ^Visits from the king of Saxony in Thuringia, and of the 
duchess in Dresden (1855)— Illness and convalescence — Sojourn in It- 
aly (1856-5T) — Souvenirs of this voyage 861 

XXIIL 
The end — A storm at sea — ^Death of the duchess de Nemours (November 
10, 1857) — Last Christmas festival — Desire for departure — Last letter in 
my address, (April 4, 1858) — Illness of the duke de Chartres — Illness of 
the duchess— Her end, May 18, 1853 875 



I. 



The princess Helena Louisa Elizaljetli, of 
Mecklenburg Schwerin, born at tlie castle of Lud- 
wigslust, on the 24tk of January, 1814, was tbe 
daughter of Louis Frederick, hereditary grand-duke 
of Mecklenburg Scbwerin, by bis second wife, 
CaroKne of Weimar, The princess Caroline was 
both charming and intellectual, and her father, 
Charles Augustus, grand-duke of Saxe-Weimar, 
the friend of Goethe and Schiller, was one of the 
most distinguished princes in Germany ; her mother 
was the princess Louisa of Weimar, of whom 
Madame de Stael has left such a fascinating portrait. 
" She was," wrote she, " the true model of a 
woman destined by nature for the most illustrious 
rank ; without pretension or weakness she inspired 
both confidence and respect. Her soul was pene- 
trated with the heroism of chivalric times, without 
being disrobed of feminine gentleness." 
1* 



10 MEMOIE OF THE 

The princess Helen was only two years of age 
when the grand-duchess Caroline died, in the prime 
of life. "While dying, it is said she requested her 
husband to grant another mother to her children, 
and designated her cousin, the princess Augusta of 
Hamburg. Never was maternal devotion better 
directed. The princess Augusta became grand- 
duchess of Mecklenburg in 1814, and being soon 
after left a widow, consecrated all her best affec- 
tions to her cousin's children. She retired from 
society that she might devote herself more entirely 
to their education, and chiefly to that of the prin- 
cess Helen, who attached herself to her from the 
very first, and never ceased to love her with the 
tenderness of a daughter. 

One takes pleasure in recognizing in this grace- 
ful child aU the qualities that she afterwards ex- 
hibited. The perfect simplicity of her character 
was doubtless maintained by her entire forgetful- 
ness of self. Indeed, a special charm attaches 
itself to those natures that never vary, independ- 
ent, if one may so speak, of their intrinsic value ; 
one always finds in them the freshness of childhood. 
On the contrary, virtues acquired during the course 
of life are rarely allied with complete self-abne- 
gation ; for the efforts they have cost are recalled 
continually, and make one look upon them with a 



DUCHESS OF OELEANS. 11 

sort of complacency, in spite of oneself. The prin- 
cess Helen, at the age of four years, manifested a 
tender, generous concern for the sufferings of others, 
and was strong in bearing her own, as we have 
since seen, " She was never egotistical," say those 
who had charge of her early education, " and was 
at that age inspired with a never decreasing devo- 
tion to others, which renders her tenacious of life 
even at this hour. She was benevolent, if one may 
so speak, even towards Grod ; ever ready to act 
from love to Him, rather than from a sense of 
duty. Upon one occasion, some one expressed sur- 
prise at the readiness with which she yielded a 
childish fancy ; she replied in a low tone, ' our 
Lord has said. Whosoever shall compel thee to go 
a mile, go with him twain.' " 

Before she was permitted to visit the poor and 
to direct the charitable establishments founded by 
her mother, which she did at a later period with 
remarkable judiciousness, her instinctive charity 
exercised itself upon the families of her dependents ; 
she made their children come to her, and taught 
them what she had learned herself. This gentle, 
frail little creature, inspired the tender respect of 
her pupils, large, robust children of Thuringia, who 
kneeling before her, gravely answered her questions, 
and oftener left her rewarded than punished. The 



12 MEMOIK OF THE 

presents that were liung yearly for her upen the 
Christmas tree, were soon found in the hands of 
her playmates, who were made to promise never to 
admire them in her presence, lest the articles to 
which she attached the most value, should be the 
first cheerfully sacrificed. Her desire to please and 
to be surrounded by happy faces, which in some chil- 
dren is only a graceful form of coquetterie, arose 
from a deeper feeling ; without suspecting it her- 
self, she early became attractive to all who ap- 
proached her. 

Her masters, charmed with her avidity for 
knowledge, were often forced to interrupt their re- 
citals, in order to check tlie impression made upon 
her delicate organization, by a touching history or 
heroic trait. Her constitution was too feeble for a 
nature whose sudden and fine impulses betokened 
an affinity with the Southern races, while their 
duration and length convinced one of her German 
origin. At twelve years of age, she lost a friend 
who had shared her studies and resided near her for 
several years ; her grief was so great that she be- 
came seriously ill. At this epoch her countenance 
assumed a melancholy expression, naturally entirely 
foreign to it, but which a long succession of afflic- 
tions afterwards rendered habitual. 

In the spring of 1827, the grand-duchess took 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 13 

her for tlie first time to Weimar, Up to this mo- 
ment slie had educated her in almost entire soli- 
tude. Living for the greater part of the year in 
the country, either at Doberan, on the borders of 
the Baltic, or at Plushon, which belonged to the 
hereditary grand-duke, the young princess knew, 
out of her own family, only her professors, men of 
rare merit in Germany, and the excellent and dis- 
tinguished women whom her mother had placed 
over her when she was eighteen months old, and 
who up to her marriage never left hei\ To this 
contemplative life she owed an intellectual cultiva- 
tion rare in any woman, and simple tastes which 
were sources of a thousand delights in the course of 
her changeful destiny. Accustomed to live in a 
sort of intimacy with Nature, she penetrated the 
beauty of its varied objects as well as its com- 
pleteness ; a bright day, a walk in some beautiful 
place, or the sight of flowers that she loved to 
gather, afforded her joy in childhood, and gave her 
moments of pleasure in after life. 

The princess Helen was not surprised by the 
new movement which presented her at the court 
of Weimar ; with a mind already open to all intel- 
lectual pleasures, she found herself everywhere at 
ease, and seemed to have passed her life in the 
midst of those to whom she was presented. The 



14 MEMOIE OF THE 

remembrance of that little girl of thirteen years re- 
mained in their mincls^ like a charming, poetic 
apparition. " I see her still/' writes one, " clothed 
in red, without any other ornament than her pretty 
brown hair ; lively as a bird, yet dignified in all 
her movements, and I recall the tender pride with 
which the aged grand-duke of Weimar fixed his 
eyes upon her. 

A journey to Switzerland, whither she went to 
join her brother prince Albert, alone interrupted 
the regularity of her life from 1827 to 1830. 
Upon leaving the great sand plains of Mecklen- 
burg, with its marshes and monotonous sombre 
woods, the first sight of the splendors of Swiss 
scenery, filled her with emotions too deep for utter- 
ance. One day she was surprised in tears at the 
Falls of Schaffbuse, gazing at the foaming waters 
sparkling in the golden sun-beams. 

After a new sojourn at Doberan, the princess 
Helen returned with her mother to Ludwigslust, 
where she received confirmation in the parish 
church on the 30th of May, 1830. The inhabit- 
ants of the community who had known and cherish- 
ed her from her birth were present at the ceremony,' 
and united their fervent prayers with those of 
their " good Helen," " unsere gute Helene." When 
she kneeled before the altar, after the pastor laid 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 15 

his hand upon her and pronounced the Benediction 
according to the Lutheran rite, all joined with 
emotion in singing the canticle she herself had 
chosen : — herzUcJi Ueb hahe icli o Hen. 

'' From the depths of my heart, Lord, I love 
thee." 

We perhaps dwell too much upon details whose 
sweet simplicity contrasts with the more severe real- 
ity of scenes that have impressed the memory of the 
princess Helen upon us : — it is not simply because 
we take a sad pleasure in dwelling upon the peace- 
able events of a life so full of agitation, but because 
some remarkable traits in her character here strike 
us most forcibly. Habituated to the courtesy of pa- 
triarchal simplicity, to respectful confidence on the 
part of the people, and to the paternal protection 
of princes, surrounded by warm hearts and ac- 
quainted only with sentiments to which her heart 
found no difficulty in responding, she might have 
been less competent than most persons to under- 
stand the varied society and different countries to 
which she found herself transported. Her vivid 
imagination might have been more easily excited 
than most others, but she had that faculty in a 
high degree which belongs to character as well as 
mind : — rapid intuition of diverse situations and 
intelligent comprehension of them, nay more, deep 



16 MEMOIK OF THE 

admiration of all that awakened tlie idea of a great 
work to be accomplished, of a noble cause, of lofty 
thoughts, whatever might be the form under 
which they presented themselves. It was owing 
to this quickness of comprehension and the gift of 
assimilating sympathies with all that caused the 
hearts of others to throb, that in the forest of Do- 
beran, a princess of sixteen years of age, acquaint- 
ed only with France through her books and what 
her masters taught her, was qualified to take an 
ardent interest in the events of 1830, and to dis- 
tinguish them with marvellous sagacity from those 
of an ordinary revolution. In this contest wherein 
she saw a people in arms not to attack, but to 
maintain the laws against the power that sought 
to overthrow them, all her interest from the very 
first was upon the side of the people ; she daily 
awaited the arrival of the French journals with as 
much impatience as if she was agitated concerning 
personal events, copied the articles that chiefly in- 
terested her, and, in short, watched the political 
movement, apparently so foreign to her own inter- 
est, with singular emotion. This first enthusiasm 
awakened in the name of France and liberty left 
its deep traces in her mind, and the name of the 
Orleans family was impressed upon her heart long 
before she divined that it would one day be her own. 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 17 

From this moment, French literature assumed 
an interest altogether new in her eyes. She direct- 
ed her studies chiefly in that language, and spoke 
from preference that tongue she had been habituat- 
ed to speak from infancy. 

But soon some personal disquietudes succeeded 
the disinterested emotions the events of France 
had awakened within her. The grand-duchess was 
taken seriously ill, and sent to Toeplitz in such a 
feeble state, that it was feared she would die 
before reaching the end of her journey. Her 
daughter seated by her side watched her with ten- 
der anxiety, though without fearing she might be 
left an orphan for the second time. God sjaared 
her such a grief. The sojourn at Toeplitz, to which 
she attributed the establishment of her mother's 
health, perhaps exercised a decisive influence over 
her destiny. The princess seldom left the sick 
chamber, and received only a very few jDcrsons ; 
but none who once saw her remained indifferent 
to her charms. The French minister, Monsieur 
Bresson, without having yet been introduced, had 
occasion to meet her, and never lost the impression 
she made upon him. It was also at Toeplitz that 
the king of Prussia, already allied to her family by 
the marriage of one of his daughters to the heredi- 
tary grand-duke of Mecklenburg, saw her for the 



18 



MEMOIE OF THE 



first time. At first attracted towards lier by the 
superiority of her intellect, rendered still more 
striking by her extreme youth, he found daily in- 
creasing pleasure in conversing with her, and ex- 
pressed an attachment for her that never after- 
wards diminished. 

Among the many manifestations of kindness 
she then received, we should regret to pass in si- 
lence one more precious than all others, for it is 
pleasant to think that two persons, separated on 
earth by diverse fortunes, yet worthy of each other 
through true elevation of character, meet at one date 
in life, and become drawn together by a common 
sympathy, notwithstanding the difierence in age 
and position. 

The dauphiness came with King Charles X., 
to inquire concerning the health of the grand- 
duchess, who was still confined to her chamber. 
The princess Helen received her, and was the 
bearer of her mother's thanks. The rapid intuition 
of her heart led her to perceive true moral great- 
ness of character even when concealed by austere 
simplicity of manners. The calm dignity impress- 
ed upon the features of the dauphiness unveiled to 
her an abyss of continued struggles and conquests. 
She in turn so much inspired the admiration of the 
noble exile that her sweet imaace remained, im- 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 19 

pressed upon lier years after their meeting. When 
some of the French visited the dauphmess at 
Prague, she first questioned them concerning the 
young duchess of Orleans, whose name she was 
convinced needed only to be mentioned. " Is she 
happy .?" she asked with much earnestness ; " I 
sincerely hope so, for I knew her and know how 
well she merits happiness." 

The year 1832 was a memorable one to the 
princess ; marked by one of those great griefs that 
can never be effaced. While visiting a ruin in the 
environs of Jena, her brother prince Albert had a 
dangerous fall. In accordance with his own request 
he was conveyed to Mecklenburg, to his own 
family, where he languished several months before 
he died. His sister watched him with tender care, 
but cheered by no hopes of recovery. During these 
days and nights of anguish, she stifled her own grief 
that she might aid him in bearing his sufferings, 
and lead him to die with resignation at the early 
age of twenty-two years. Perhaps it was in this 
great struggle that she learned to control her deep- 
est emotions, to suffer with apparent serenity, con- 
cealing her extreme sensitiveness within her own 
soul and to be mistress of herself at all times. 
Seven years later, when full of happiness, she 
writes : — " This date will remind you of the great 



20 MEMOIR OF THE 

trial that marked it, Tlie Lord has richly blessed 
me since that sad epoch ; he has been a friend and 
protector, granting me happiness I never conceived 
of; although my yonth never recovered from the 
shock it then received, tears have borne their blessed 
fruit ; I felt it would be so then, and thanks be to 
Godj I feel it novf. I have learned to love his holy 
will, even when it tries me, and to resign myself to 
it, cheerfully." 

She passed the winter following her brother's 
death in entire solitude. She devoted herself to 
reviving her mother's fortitude, and only sought 
distraction infrequent visits to the poor. The more 
she suffered herself, the more she sought to diminish 
their sufferings by abundant alms. 

The praise of a princess' generosity, it seems to 
me, is a eulogy of little value ; to give, is a thing so 
easy, that it is sometimes asked how it may be 
distinguished from an amiable fancy ; but thanks 
be to God, He has not granted the privilege of ex- 
ercising true charity, only to the poor, because they 
only can give what costs them a sacrifice. To be 
prodigal of time, attention, and interest, to diffuse 
joy wherever she passed, to lead the poor to think 
that she thought of their pleasures as well as their 
misery, was the princess Helen's privilege and pleas- 
ure ; hence we dare praise her generosity, without 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 31 

the fear of bestowing eulogy too trivial. After her 
long season of mourning, it was not without a 
struggle that she submitted to the wishes of her 
family to return to Schwerin, and take part in 
the fetes given at that court, in honor of the 
fiftieth year of the reign of the aged duke, her 
grandfather. One hesitates to repeat compliments 
current in the society of princesses ; — yet it is 
nevertheless true, wherever she presented herself, 
she was beloved, and the particular interest mani- 
fested in her, afbse from the special concern she took 
in the most ordinary actions of others. The 
benevolence of her youthful countenance with its 
pensive expression, surprised and charmed, old and 
young, great and small ; all felt her sweet and 
cheering influence ; an interview with her increased 
one's yearning for what is good ; in short, whether 
she entered a cottage or parlor, countenances bright- 
ened like sunbeams at her presence. Those who 
knew her can testify, how much more delightful life 
seemed in her society, and how the thought of her 
was mingled with their hopes and remembrances, 
and how a shadov/ seems now to be cast over their 
brightest dreams for the future. 



22 MEMOIR OF THE 



II. 



Who lias not experienced a melanclioly emotion, 
upon seeing a vessel launched into tlie broad sea, 
and been tempted to seize the hand about to 
detach the cable ; however smooth the surface of the 
water, however luminous the horizon, the imag- 
ination pictures an o'erclouded sky and angry 
waves. 

The moment seems about to arrive when the 
fate of the princess Helen is to be decided, and one 
experiences a like emotion ; one hesitates to leave 
the peaceful dwelling, where she has yet known 
nothing of life but its joys, or griefs mingled with 
consolations that God never fails to send with trials 
coming directly from his hand. Yet now, the story 
of her life becomes a part of our own history, and 
her happiness and sorrows commingle with ours. 



DUCHESS OF OKLEANS. 23 

In the spring of 1836, tlie duke of Orleans and 
the duke of Nemours, left France for the first time 
since 1830, and went to Berlin, where the aged 
king received them with his accustomed cordiality ; 
becoming subsequently charmed with so much real 
merit and grace, he regarded them with paternal 
affection, and frankly expressed his regret that he 
had no more daughters upon whom to confer 
happiness. The image of the young princess Helen, 
whom he had known at Tceplitz, then presented 
itself, and he felt that she alone was worthy of such 
accomplished princes-. 

He was conscious that many varied qualities 
ought to be found in the future duchess of Orleans. 
None but of royal blood could be presented as 
daughter-in-law to the queen, Marie Amelia, and 
must be as well educated for France, as if born there. 
A person well known for superiority of intellect and 
virtue could alone call our princess by the name 
of sister. In short, it would be necessary for her to 
rise above all the narrow restrictions and puerile 
contempt that the government of the king then in- 
spired in Europe, and boldly face all chances and 
even dangers she would have to encounter as the 
wife of a French prince. 

The king of Prussia saw these qualities so 
rarely united in the princess Helen of Mecklenburg, 



24 MEMOm OF THE 

and in her only ; his tenderness for her and the 
royal ]3rince made him earnestly desire their union. 
He took a personal interest in these two destinies, 
that no resistance on the part of his own family 
could shake. Though the king had revealed his 
wishes to the duke of Orleans, when he visited Ber- 
lin, and had latterly spoken much of them, the 
duke wished to satisfy himself that the king's 
affection had not blinded him with regard to the 
merits of the princess, and that she was such an one 
as he had painted before determining to seek the 
hand of one whose external circumstances corre- 
sponded with his desires. His loyalty led him to 
consider his marriage as a duty both to his family 
and country, and regarded the event as one of the 
most serious in his life ; without being willing to 
sacrifice any of the exactions of rank, he determined 
not to surrender any conditions of private happiness 
and domestic union. He revealed his plans to none 
of the king's rcinisters, before seeking to form his 
own judgment of the intellectual and moral qualifi- 
cations of the princess ; having satisfied his own 
mind, he made Monsieur Bresson his ambassador 
to the court of Mecklenburg, with power to ask the 
hand of the princess Helen. 

It is said that her brother, grand-duke of Meck- 
lenburg, was at first ill disposed towards this 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 25 

alliance. It would be unjust to charge him with 
opposition simply on account of his views concern- 
ing the events of 1830, and the house of Orleans ; 
his deep anxiety for his sister's happiness led him 
to fear her departure to a country so fatal to its 
princes. Have we now, right to blame him ? We 
may admire the still more exalted ideas and equal 
tenderness of the duchess of Mecklenburg, aud the 
noble aspirations of the princess Helen. All that 
was said of the duke of Orleans doubtless fascinated 
the young girl's imagination, and the thought of 
sharing the throne of France enhanced the glory of 
the future ; but these were not the most lively 
motives that agitated her mind. In short, she did 
not deem happiness (though she deeply enjoyed the 
measure of it Grod granted her) of so much impor- 
tance as others of more ordinary minds ; it was not 
her first aim ; or rather, happiness, in her eyes, did 
not consist in the tranquil possession of the good 
things of this world, but in the exercise of all the 
noble faculties of the soul and mind, and in the ac- 
complishment of a "noble and important work." 
Hence she felt attracted to France and the house of 
Orleans, by what would repel one of less decision of 
character. The trials to which the king and his 
sons had been continuously exposed, seven years 
before, were not unknown to her ; she knew in 
2 



26 MEMOIR OF THE 

what anxiety the days of the queen had passed, in 
consequence of the dangers to which the princes 
voluntarily exposed themselves in Africa, and were 
subjected to in their own country. Her share of 
these perils and cares, she determined to accept 
with a firm will. She resolved to devote her life 
to the prince, whose noble character inspired her 
confidence, and to aid him in the accomplishment 
of his great work. 

It appears that the duke of Orleans divined 
what was passing within her mind, and that he 
intuitively replied to her thoughts in the letter ad- 
dressed to Monsieur Bresson, but destined for the 
princess Helen ; in this epistle he unreservedly 
exposed all the objections to their union, arising 
from the solicitude of the Mecklenburg family. 
" I received strength from that letter," said the 
princess, " to march against all foreseen difficulties." 
From that moment she no longer hesitated, and 
with the support of her mother's approbation, in- 
dulged in her unfolding hopes, and fixed her 
thoughts upon the future country of her adoption. 

The marriage contract was signed on the 5th 
of April, 1837, and on the 15th the duke of Or- 
leans' bethrothed, left Ludwigslust with her 
mother, who desired in person to present her to 
the queen. From the dawn of day the vestibules 



DUCHESS OF OKLEANS. 27 

and stairways of the castle were crowded with, old 
servants and youthful companions, seeking a fare- 
well sight of the princess. Upon seeing the way 
strewn with flowers, she bowed and smiled, though 
in tears. Bouquets were thrown by beloved hands 
into the carriage, and it was with diiS-Culty that 
she made her way through surrounding groups. 
Four verses of her own composition, traced upon 
one of the windows of the palace, reveal the deep 
emotions of joy and sadness she experienced at the 
moment of her departure. 

So lebe wohl, du stilles Haus 
Ich. zieli betrubt aus dir binaus 
Und bliibt mir fern ein shones Gltick, 
Icb denke gem an dicb zuriick. 
May 14, 183T. 

She received touching marks of affectiiDn 
throughout the whole route ; deputies from among 
the peasants and lords of Mecklenburg presented 
their earnest wishes for her happiness. King 
Frederick William desired that the princess and 
her retinue might halt at Potsdam, and there re- 
ceived them with his ministers and the royal 
family. When the time of departure arrived, the 
king manifested much emotion, and solemnly 
blessed the young girl, over whose future destiny 
he had exercised some influence. 



28 MEMOIE OF THE 

On tte 22d of May the ambassador appointed 
to accompany tlie princess to Paris, arrived at 
Fulde, and was presented. The king placed the 
duke de Broglie at the head of this embassy, in 
order that his venerated name might be associated 
with the event of his son's marriage ; few possessed 
such a rare combination of worth and talent. The 
princess was capable of appreciating the king's 
choice and duly expressed her thanks. 

It was upon the 25th of May, a delightful 
spring day, that she passed the frontier, under a 
triumphal arch, bearing the inscription, France, 
in large floral letters. Without dwelling upon the 
ordinary official receptions from Forbach to Fon- 
tainbleau, we must notice the ejffect everywhere 
produced by the princess' appearance. She was 
doubtless agitated by conflicting emotions. As she 
wrote at a later date, some sad presentiments 
mingled themselves with her hopes, some regrets 
for her native country, with a sincere love for that 
of her adoption. But her deepest emotions were 
always concealed by a benign dignity. She was 
neither intimidated nor exalted upon suddenly find- 
ing herself the object of universal attention. Her 
replies were not dictated but inspired by the emo- 
tions of the moment, and were always suitable. 

It was chiefly at Metz, the first French gar- 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 29 

risoned city, that her unconstrained tact and noble, 
yet not haughty, bearing made the most decided 
impression. At Forbach she only encountered a 
rustic population ; the courtesy and cordiality of 
the mayors of the Alsatian villages, almost re- 
minded her of the good Mecklenburgers and their 
familiar amicability. Metz was altogether a French 
town, ill-disposed to foreign manners, and always 
more ready to criticise than approve. In a few 
hours before her departure she entirely captivated 
the idle, curious multitude. The officers of the 
garrison, who were presented to her shortly after 
she alighted from the coach, and before she had 
taken any repose, declared that they should have 
been intimidated in that young girl's presence, if 
they had not been fascinated by her modest grace. 

Indeed, the indescribable charm of her counte- 
nance pleased from the very first. If no particular 
feature attracted attention, the eyes of all were 
fascinated by the symmetry and beauty of her whole 
person, and an interest excited, impossible to be 
withdrawn. Her benevolent smile and ever vary- 
ing expression, sometimes joyous, sometimes full of 
affection and emotion, reflected her soul and deep- 
ened the impression made by every word she spoke. 
Though her uncommon dignity consiantly reminded 
all of her rank, which she seemed unconscious of, 



30 MEMOIR OF THE 

we may say the feeling slie inspired was that of 
sympathy. At a later period, when grief under all 
its forms had tried her, the extreme mobility of 
her countenance was lessened hy an habitually 
gentle, pensive expression, that even when most 
animated, seemed to solicit a hopeful word. 

The arrival at Fontainbleau was characterized 
by one of the most striking spectacles the place 
had ever witnessed. It was one of those rare 
moments when the country and ruling power were 
in harmony, and when political interests were com- 
mingled with the private happiness of the House 
of Orleans. The marriage of the prince royal 
seemed to silence all disquietude for the future, and 
the nation seemed sailing into an era of prosperity ; 
the public satisfaction was marked by a general 
elation, and the princess's cortege was welcomed with 
repeated cries of " long live the king." The in- 
terior court was filled with troops, while an immense 
multitude surrounded the railing. The king and 
princes stood in waiting at the foot of the grand 
staircase ; near him the duke of Orleans, who had 
just returned from Chalons, where he had his first 
interview ; at the head of the stairway stood the 
queen, with the princesses, ladies of honor^ and in- 
vited guests ; and a little distant a group of dis- 
tinguished men who had played a part in political 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 81 

scenes and were illustrious in France, either from 
rank or talent. 

The young princess alighted from the coach 
with uncommon grace, while all eyes were fixed 
upon her. She knelt at the king's feet, and kissed 
his hand with tender deference, then cast herself 
into the queen's arms with so natural an emotion 
that none could look on with indifference. 

" It was a touching scene," writes one upon re- 
turning from Fontainbleau. " The young princess has 
truly a royal bearing ; though so youthful and even 
childlike in her appearance, she seems to govern all 
around her. Her countenance admirably accords 
with her intellect and character ; it is an index of 
her soul ; her eyes are radiant with intelligence and 
animation ; it would be impossible to conceive of 
more dignity and ease of manner, void of boldness. 
The princess's attention did not seem in the least 
distracted by the profusion of rich attire, jewels, 
and laces. There was some anxiety felt concern- 
ing the arrival at Paris in the midst of these dis- 
plays and vanities. But all were orderly and ani- 
mated. At the moment of entering the Tuileries 
she arose with childlike curiosity in the caliche to 
catch a coup d'oeil of the place, and the impression 
her appearance made upon the spectators was a 
most happy one. She never lost self-possession for 



32 MEMOIR OF THE 

a moment, and I believe that Grod reigns in the 
very depths of her heart. She impresses the imag- 
ination like those princesses in fairy tales led by 
good genii into brilliant palaces." 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 33 



III. 

The years immediately following tlie marriage 
of the duchess of Orleans, were blessed with every 
joy that earth could afford. She found complete 
happiness in the bosom of her family, in the 6clat 
of a brilliant court, and in the sincere homage paid 
not only to her rank, but to her virtues ; with 
every hope for a cloudless future, there was nothing 
to mar her enjoyment, and she appreciated it with 
all the fulness of her lively yet reflective nature. 

Upon the 30th of May, the anniversary of her 
wedding, she thus writes to the friend of her child- 
hood : " To-day, my heart is more filled with hap- 
piness and gratitude than ever. One hails the 
anniversary of such a day with ever new emotion. 
How different is this from that of the past year ! 
Behold all my hopes realized, and new ones attract- 
ing me to the future : a deep and true affection, 
2* 



34: MEMOIR OF THE 

that I did not then surmise, filling my heart, my 
position in accordance with the desires of my 
family, established upon a solid foundation, and an 
approaching hope, binding me to the hearts of the 
country, all these are subjects of gratitude ; a few 
of them we anticipated, but they are more numerous 
than your fond heart and mother's ever conceived, 
and more than I had ever dreamed of It is two 
o'clock. At this moment, a year ago, I was in the 
midst of the pomp and glory of the wedding festival. 
What gifts were showered upon me. Since then, 
thanhs be to Grod, I have learned to regard luxury 
with sufficient indifference, excepting what is grant- 
ed me, according to its true value. Then the 
evening, with its successive ceremonies, that agi- 
tated my mind, yet fixed my happiness. Oh what 
remembrances ! what difference ! Let us together 
thank God, who has loaded me with benefits, and 
placed such a noble, important aim before me in 
life. It seems as if God is granting me too much 
happiness ; I feel it surpasses all that I merit, yefc 
accept it with gratitude, since He sends it." 

And when these hopes were realized, what a hymn 
of joy is contained in these few lines written shortly 
after the birth of the young Count Paris ; her ma- 
ternal transports mingle themselves with the most 
exalted feelings of her new duties towards France. 



DUCHESS OF OKLEANS. 35 

" How merciful God is ! " exclaimed slie ; " you 
raise your heart with mine in devout thanks ; it has 
sounded the depths of my happiness. Yes^ your child 
is the happiest of mothers ; her heart is too small 
to retain its delights. A new world is unfolded to 
me ; a child to clierisli with the hopes of a people 
to be realized in that child. The task is great, is 
noble ; — may God grant us his wisdom, his light." 

Her passionate interest in the glory of her 
country, if possible, surpassed her personal joys. 
The march of public events and literary movements 
engrossed her mind. In associating with the royal 
prince who was ever ready to pay homage to men 
of distinguished talents, she gathered such a circle 
around her as she would wish her son to move in. 

In the midst of most diverse opinions, she was 
pre-eminently capable of increasing the number 
of those personally friendly to the royal family. 
Full of affectionate submission to the wishes of the 
king, she avoided with scrupulous delicacy every 
thing that might attract particular homage to 
herself, or grant any license to parties ever ready 
to imagine a diversity of opinions between the heir 
to the throne and the head of the State. Denying 
herself the pleasure of assembling friends of her 
o\m choice around her, lest malevolence might at- 
tribute the act to political intrigue, she made no 



36 MEMOIK OF THE 

distinction between lier own manner of living and 
that of lier sisters-in-law. She passed a portion of 
each, morning with them in the queen's apart- 
ments. While at their work, the king often join- 
ed them, and read aloud the most remarkable 
writings of the day. In the evening the princess 
royal remained with the queen until her hour for 
retirement, then withdrew to her own apartments, 
where she read alone with the prince. Domestic 
life was animated by her vivacity, and she never 
sought to distract her mind from its sometimes 
monotonous duties by puerile pleasures. Indul- 
gence in a refined taste for the arts often relieved 
the weariness of court life. Sometimes the finest 
artists of the Conservatoire were summoned to ex- 
ecute the music of the great masters at the Tuil- 
eries, and they still recall the pleasure with which 
the king listened to those ancient airs, souvenirs 
of his youth. Sometimes the duke of Orleans 
reproduced the splendor of former times at Chan- 
tilly. The duchess in her youth and beauty pre- 
sided at these fetes, yet she always feared becoming 
too much engrossed in the current of happiness, 
and was disquieted by so gay a life. On the eve 
of a fancy ball to be given at the Marsan Pavilion, 
she called a friend and .besought her to tell her with 
all sincerity whether she thought her culpable in 



DUCHESS OF OKLEANS. 37 

encouraging too frivolous, perhaps dangerous amuse- 
ments. With charming naivete, she both asked 
and feared a reply. 

This incident, trivial in itself, reveals the depths 
of the duchess of Orleans' nature. She always 
experienced these scrupulous emotions, even when 
most absorbed in the excitement of the moment. 
Every thing in life interested her ; yet she con- 
stantly looked beyond the delights of the world to- 
wards heaven. While reviewing a past year, her 
soul thus expresses itself in devotion and prayer. 
" How quickly this year has passed away ! (1840) ; 
it has been rich in benedictions. May Grod grant 
us faithful, thankful hearts ! Let us serve Him in 
thought, word and deed. May he be with all our 
beloved ones, lead them to himself, protect and 
bless them. Ah ! how ready the heart is to make 
renewed vows each returning year. At this solemn 
hour, God and our beloved ones alone fill the 
thoughts." 

The baptism of count de Paris took place in 
the month of May, 1841. " The spring has again 
returned in all its glory," she writes ; " it will be 
the most beautiful ornament of the anticipated 
fete ; the hours to be passed at Notre Dame on 
the second Sabbath of May, wiU be filled with emo- 
tion, prayer and hope. I desire to have my mind 



38 MEMOIR OF THE 

freed from all minor distractions. Yet I am tor- 
mented with, anxiety, lest my child should be 
restless, afraid, or perhaps obstinate in that solemn 
hour. Eead, I pray you, what Fenelon has written 
on the subject of Baptism ; those pages are beau- 
tiful and instructive." 

Upon the 3d of May, she thus writes : — 
" Nothing could have been more beautiful or more 
solemn than yesterday's fete ; nothing more pure 
and touching than the sight of my little angel 
presented at the altar ; naught more profoundly 
moved than my poor maternal heart at that mo- 
ment. If I was not deceived, the eyes of all pres- 
ent were filled with an expression of tender affec- 
tion for the cliild. The prayers of the baptismal 
ceremony are beautiful, and I found them in ac- 
cordance with my feelings as I followed them." 

The birth of a second son, the duke de Chartres, 
increased the happiness of the royal family. A 
new horizon was arising to the duchess of Orleans, 
and while it filled her heart with joy, also gave 
rise to serious thought. There was no simple 
pleasure to which she was indifferent, and none 
which did not awaken some serious feeling. 

A few abstracts from letters written at this 
period enable us to lift the veil from that pure, 
ardent soul. 



DUCHESS OF OELEANS. 39 

" You know," writes she, " that nature has 
always a great influence over me. I find that we 
cannot sufficiently identify "ourselves with it by 
observation. Grod speaks to the heart in its ad- 
mirable manifestations. I think it good to culti- 
vate a taste for it in the minds of chiklren ; in ad- 
miring Nature, they learn to . adore the Creator. 
You are right in believing that I do not allow a 
fine sunset or moonlight to pass by, without lead- 
ing the hearts of my children to Him, who made 
these wonders of Nature. The emotion of the 
beautiful must be developed in these young minds. 

" Yesterday I summoned up all my resolution to 
separate Kobert from me, and to leave him in 
his new lodgings near Paris. It was a sort of 
triumphal promenade that wrung my heart. Paris 
ran joyously on before me while I led the little 
one ; my mother and attendants followed me. I 
had the pleasure of putting the poor child to sleep. 

I earnestly recommended him to Madame G 

who has charge of the dormitories, and gave Paris 
his supper ; he is as lovely as an angel. I love 
such an evening ; it calms the agitations of the 
heart. I now enjoy few such, for I endeavor to 
satisfy the demands of society as far as possible." 

" The minds of children expand more freely 
when alone with their parents. I endeavor to be 



4:0 MEMOIK OF THE 

alone witli my son as mucli as possible. To-day 
I went with him to Neuilly ; I reclined upon his 
couchj and he slept in my arms while I showered 
a thousand caresses upon him. You should see 
how affectionate and thoughtful he is. Oh ! the 
happiness of a bourgeois mother." 

She again writes upon the return of the duke 
of Orleans from his last voyage to Africa. 

" (June, 1840.) Congratulate me upon the 
return of my protector, my friend, my life. His 
absence seems to have been a long dream. Tester- 
day was a delightful day. I can only compare it 
with Paris' birthday. My heart was full of grati- 
tude and palpitated with joy. Some visitors came, 
then we were left alone for a few moments. The 
little one was in my bed-chamber ; the door was 
half open ; he entered a little timidly, yet gave his 
hand to his father, who thinks him much grown. 
The family withdrew, and we dined together alone. 
The little one trotted around the table, singing, 
laughing and delighting his father's heart. It was 
a precious evening of intimate communion." 

One of those events that painfully and fre- 
quently reminded France of the estimation in which 
the life of her king was held, interrupted the peace- 
able current of domestic joys. 

" Providence has again protected us in a very 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 41 

visible manner," writes the ducliess of Orleans, 
after an attempted assassination ; " the king, queen, 
my aunt, and all accompanying them, were spared; 
and we have seen the frustration of the eighth in- 
fernal attempt against so precious a life. A sense 
of the goodness of God has supplanted the first 
emotion of horror at such a crime. His grace fills 
my soul. I cannot sufficiently thank Him for pre- 
serving us from so frightful an evil. We immedi- 
ately set out to join the family at St. Cloud. There 
above all, upon seeing the king and embracing him 
with my whole heart, did I fully realize God's 
goodness in preserving him to us. You will under- 
stand how fully my heart joined in the Te Deum, 
at the chapel of the castle." At another time, 
upon receiving intelligence of a like event, she 
entered the apartment where the Count de Paris 
was taking a lesson, and exclaimed, with great 
emotion, " kneel with me, and thank God." 

These and like past experiences, impressed her 
still more sensibly with a feeling of the instability 
of all things, and a vague fear of being too com- 
pletely happy. A letter written from Dreux, on 
the 7th of July, 1841, expresses in a touching 
manner, the almost superstitious feeling that some- 
times oppressed her. 

" I there saw, for the first time, my poor sisters- 



4:2 MEMOIE OF THE 

in-law's tomb, and the vaults wherein we all shall 
one day be received ; how many tears will fall there 
- — how many of my own, perhaps, may be shed, 
before my ashes are there deposited. These thoughts 
filled me with reflection, and led me to consecrate 
myself anew, and with full confidence to resign my- 
self into the hands of God." 

Nevertheless, the year 1841 ended in the pleni- 
tude of terrestrial benedictions. There was every 
reason to hope- for a like future. The duke of 
Orleans, who had been ill for some time after his 
return from Africa, was entirely restored. The 
enthusiasm with which he was received while travel- 
ling with the duchess through the interior of 
France, bore testimony to his increasing popularity. 
The king, perceiving his great capabilities, initiated 
him more and more into his confidence, and thus 
increased the hopes of all for the future, 

" The prince," writes the duchess of Orleans, 
" to my great satisfaction, finds his duties greatly 
multiplied. I say, to my great satisfaction, though 
they often separate me from him, for I am ambi- 
tious for his advancement, and when I .see his suc- 
cess in every thing he undertakes, and the increas- 
ing confidence placed in his judgment, even of those 
things near to the king's heart, I am proud of him, 
and this pride sometimes suffices in lieu of him- 
self." 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 43 



lY. 

Some anxiety was mingled with these happy 
presages. The duchess's health, of which she 
never was carefulj hegan to fail, and her physicians 
insisted upon her trying the waters of Plombieres. 
It was difficult to persuade her to this decision. 
She would be obliged to leave her children just at 
the time of the year when she could most freely 
enjoy their society in the lovely retreat at Neuilly, 
where their domestic life was less interrupted by 
duties to the world. 

" If you knew," she writes before her departure, 
" how much I enjoy the beautiful summer weather 
in the country, and still more my children, who are 
so pretty, fresh and rosy, passing their days in the 
open fields. They are like little flowers in the 
midst of o'ershadowing plants." 

She always yielded to the entreaties of her 



44: , MEMOIR OF THE 

friends, but now sought the consolations of religion 
with even more than her ordinary fervor, as if she 
would gain strength for unknown trials. On the 
3d of July she left happy Neuilly with the duke 
of Orleans, They were accompanied by General 
Baudrand, M. de Montguyon and Madame de 
Montesquieu, While crossing the outer boulevard 
they passed a cemetery; the entrance to it was 
bordered with Kttle shops, where crowns and fune- 
ral ornaments were offered for sale. "I despise 
those merchants who speculate on grief," said the 
prince ; and casting his eyes on the various inscrip- 
tions, he continued, " all possible wants are antici- 
pated ; there, is a crown for a young girl, here, one 
for a little child," These words much moved the 
princess, her thoughts were doubtless of her absent 
children. The prince seeing her eyes fill with 
tears, smiled, took her hand in his and said, " No, 
that shall not be for a child, it shall perhaps be for 
a man of thirty-two years." She quickly raised her 
head and affectionately reproached him for dispel- 
ling one sad image by another still sadder." He 
soon succeeded in withdrawing her from sad 
thoughts, and their journey was cheerfully ended. 

" I am so happy," said she, one evening, " that 
I have no desire to be restored to health. If I had 
not this trial, I should probably have one still more 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS . 45 

painful ; physical pain, of all sufferings, is most 
supportable. I only go to PlomMeres because my 
friends desire it." 

Although the duke of Orleans had expressed 
his desire that the princess might be spared the 
fatigue of public receptions, the department of 
Vosges received them with great acclamations. 
Triumphal arches were everywhere erected, and the 
carriage was surrounded by an animated multi- 
tude. They arrived at Plombi^res on the 5th of 
July ; the duke spent the following day in examin- 
ing the princess's establishment, and with tender 
care providing it with every thing that could render 
her sojourn agreeable. He recommended her many 
times to the care of those who were to remain with 
her, reminding them that she was ever negligent of 
her health, and ready to abuse returning strength. 

Towards evening, the prince accompanied her 
through the pretty valley of St. Loup, and seeing 
her forming a bouquet of wild flowers, gathered a 
bunch of scabious plants and presented it to her. 
This ill-omened gift did not then attract attention, 
but was afterwards remembered by those who saw 
him present it. 

Early on the morning of the 7th of July the 
prince departed. With much emotion the poor 
princess exclaimed, "Our separation will happily 



46 MEMOIR OF THE 

not be long ; but the first moments are always 
painful." 

On Thursday, the 14tli, the weather was fine, 
and the duchess, desiring to test her strength, pro- 
posed a walk in the Gerarm6 valley, where a peasant 
family of musicians had lived for several genera- 
tions, and still took pride in exhibiting a piano 
made by the grandfather. The princess reposed a 
long time in the lowly cabin, where a young shep- 
herd played all kinds of airs upon an old guitar, 
which she gaily tried after him, to the great delight 
of the poor family. It was late when they returned 
to Plombieres. The princess was to receive several 
guests at dinner. Excited by her walk, and with a 
handful of flowers, she hastened up-stairs to ar- 
range her toilette. Madame de Montesquiou had 
scarcely commenced dressing when a domestic came 
to say that General Baudrand wished to see her im- 
mediately. Astonished at this request, she made 
her repeat it twice. " Madame, he desired you to 
come down with all haste." " But, Monuier, you 
seem greatly agitated." " Madame, I conjure you 
go down quickly." " Oh ! mon Dieu, what has 
happened ? Has the king been assassinated ? " 
" Madame, you might divine all ; do not remain so 
near the princess ; hasten down." 

She found the general with a letter in his hand. 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 4:T 

neither able to speak or rise from his chair. He 
handed her the fatal letter, containing only these 
words : " The prince-royal is dead." Had the 
duke of Orleans been assassinated ? Had he per- 
ished in quelling a revolt, or been smitten by a sud- 
den illness ? These four words only apprised them 
of the irreparable evil, and they must announce it 
to the princess without any preparation or consola- 
tion. Time was flying, while the valet, with watch 
in hand, was exclaiming, " there is only a quarter of 
an hour to dinner ; no one yet knows the news, and 
it is still possible to hide it for a whUe from the 
princess." This idea was speedily rejected ; the 
prefect and physician were summoned. The latter 
insisted that she should at first be only apprised of 
the prince's serious illness. " Her life is depend- 
ent upon you," said he to the prefect ; " you are 
responsible for it." It was finally decided that the 
prefect should prepare a telegraphic dispatch an- 
nouncing the prince's alarming illness at Paris. A 
few moments longer deliberation and the princess 
would have left her apartment. 

Madame de Montesquiou, imploring Grod for the 
strength she so much needed, ascended the stairs 
leading to the princess's apartment ; upon reaching 
the glass door that separated it from the hall, she 
paused a moment ; through the light curtains over 



4:8 MEMOiK OF THE 

the pane slie saw the princess finish her toilette, turn 
her graceful figure and joyous face towards the door, 
and finally open it. Immovable against the wall, 
she could not summon sufficient courage to speak 
the words that would destroy so much happiness. 
" What ! are you dressed ? " said the princess 
gayly. But approaching nearer, she added, " What 
is the matter with you ? you are very pale ; what 
has happened to you ? any misfortune in your 
family ? are your children or hushand ill ? " Mad- 
ame de Montesquieu pressed her hand in silence, 
yet the princess seems to feel no presentiment." 
" No, Madame, at length replied Madame de Mon- 
tesquieu, I have suffered no misfortune, yet am not 
less unhappy — I have news for your royal highness." 
These words made her recoil. " Great God ! 
what has happened ? my children, the king ? " 
" Alas ! madame, the prince-royal is very ill." 
" Oh, my God ! he is dead ! I am sure of it ! tell 
me "... — then falling upon her knees, she cried, 
" My God ! have mercy on me ; do not let him 
die ! Thou knowest I could not survive him !" 
After remaining a few moments in prayer, she 
asked to see the dispatch and read it several times. 
" This is not the ordinary form of a telegraphic 
dispatch," she said, a doubt seeming to cross her 
mind, which was quickly dispelled by the prefect. 



DUCHESS OF OELEANS. 49 

Then slie burst into tears. Slie soon arose witli 
determination, saying, " I will set out this moment, 
perhaps I shall still arrive in time to watch, beside 
him." Orders were given for her departure. Some 
moments she yielded to hope; "perhaps I shall 
find him almost well ; oh ! then I shall be well re- 
proved ; but happy in being so." Then again her 
fears would arise — " He is so afraid of disquieting 
me ; he must be very ill, from his thus apprising 
me." And her tears again began to fall. 

At eight o'clock in the evening, the party left 
Plombi^res, surrounded by a deeply agitated multi- 
tude ; every one sobbed in taking leave of the prin- 
cess, who bade each one a touching adieu. They 
were obliged to pass the streets still adorned with 
flowers. The princess prayed and wept in uninter- 
rupted silence. At niidnight they reached Epinal 
Madame de Montesquiou pressed her face against 
the window^ trembling lest some public demonstra- 
tion of grief should apprise the princess of her mis- 
fortune ; but the multitude, filling the streets, 
were silent. In the darkness she could see the 
commander of the division advancing towards the 
door ; without daring to ask any questions, she 
said in a low voice, " we are returning to Paris." 
He made no reply, and she understood by his 
gravity that he knew perhaps even more than she. 
3 



50 MEMOIR OF THE 

They continued their route. In about an hour, it 
was announced that a coach was coming from 
Paris. '• Open, open ! " cried the princess, but they 
retained her in the coach. At this moment she 
saw two men advancing towards her, and recog- 
nized M. Chomel, physician to the royal family. 
At the sight of him she uttered a piercing cry. 
" Monsieur Chomel ! ah ! my God ! the prince." 
" Madame, the prince is no longer living." " What 
do you say ? no, no, it is impossible. What ill- 
ness could have thus smitten him ? Tell me, 
give me the death blow." " Alas, madame, an 
unparalleled catastrophe — a fall from his carriage. 
He did not recover consciousness ; a few German 
words pronounced from time to time, were his only 
signs of life ; doubtless a message for your Eoyal 
Highness." " No it cannot be," she exclaimed ; 
"I do not believe it ! " Then sobs stifled her 
words. Turning towards Madame de Montesquieu 
she asked, " But the illness of which you spoke ? " 
" Madame, that was only told to prepare you." 
'' What ! you knew of his death ! what courage 
you had," she added, with that delicacy of feeling 
that always characterized her. 

In profound darkness they were nearly an hour 
upon the route ; the princess sank back in the 
coach and continued to weep while her suite vainly 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 51 

endeavored to restrain their own grief ; , then sobs 
.would break forth, in spite of themselves, which 
alone interrupted the silence of the night. 

When day dawned, she exclaimed : " What a 
day is this for me ! " then pressing G-eneral Bau- 
drand's hand, added, " Oh ! my dear General, you 
can understand my grief better than any other ; 
you knew his worth, guided his early years, loved 
him so much ! Oh ! I have lost all ; and France, 
also, has lost one whom she idolized, who knew her 
so well. But you do not know as I do — how good 
he was ; what patience, what gentleness he pos- 
sessed, what good counsels he gave me ! No, no, I 
cannot live without him." One sought to draw 
her thoughts towards her children. " My poor 
children ! " she exclaimed, in this first moment of 
grief ; "he has all my heart, I can think only of 
him." 

At four o'clock in the morning, her sisters-in- 
law met her ; she threw herself without speaking 
into their arms, and seated herself beside them in 
the carriage. From that moment she seemed ab- 
sorbed in one thought alone ; that of contemplating 
once more the dear features she should no longer 
see living. The mournful procession paused, only 
for a few moments' repose, at one - of the small 
villages. 



62 MEMOIE OF THE 

After two cruel nights, they reached Neuilly 
about nine o'clock on the morning of the 16 th of 
July. The king and the royal princes were await- 
ing the duchess, at the Eu Castle. They led her 
into a saloon, where she could only at intervals utter 
a few broken words. " Oh ! my dear Helen," said 
the king, " the greatest of misfortunes has befallen 
me in my old age." "My dear daughter," re- 
sumed the queen, with gentle authority, " live for 
us — ^for your children." 

After a few moments the princess left the 
saloon, supported by the king and the duke de Ne- 
mours. The queen and her children followed weep- 
ing. She directed to the chapel where the remains 
of the royal prince were deposited. The coffin, 
alas ! already closed, stood covered with black in 
the centre of the chapel. She knelt beside it, 
fixed her eyes upon the long velvet pall, and 
after a short prayer, she arose strengthened, and 
returned to her apartments, where she clothed 
herself in the weeds of widowhood, which she never 
afterward laid aside. 

Those who then saw her, were struck with the 
palor of her countenance ; life seemed to have left 
her, and she remained for so long a time in a state 
of stupor, that fears were entertained for her frail 
health. 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 53 



TKANSLATOR'S NOTE. 

The following full account of the death of the duke of Or- 
leans, published at the time in Galignani's Messenger, will 
doubtless be of interest to the reader. If this misfortune had 
not befallen the generally beloved duke of Orleans, how differ- 
ent might have been the destiny of Louis Napoleon : 

Yesterday, July 13th, at 12 o'clock, the duke of Orleans 
was to leave Paris for St. Omer, where he was to inspect several 
regiments. His equipages were ordered and his attendants in 
readiness. Every preparation was made at the Pavilion Manan 
for the journey, after which his royal highness was to join the 
duchess of Orleans at Plombieres. At eleven the prmce got 
into a carriage, intending to go to Neuilly, to take leave of the 
king, queen, and royal family. The carriage was a four- 
wheeled cabriolet, or caleche, drawn by two herses, driven by 
a postilion. It was the conveyance usually taken by the 
prince when going short distances round Paris. He was quite 
alone, not having suffered one of his ofiScers to accompany him. 
On arriving near the Porte Maillot, the horse rode by the postil- 
ion, took fright, and broke into a gallop. The carriage was soon 
taken with great velocity up the Chemin de la R6volte. The 
prince seeing that the postilion was unable to master the horses, 
put his foot on the step, which was very near the ground, and 
jumped when about half way along the road, direct from Porte 
Maillot. The prince touched the road with both feet, but the 
impulse was so great that he staggered and fell, with his head 
upon the pavement. The effect of the fall was terrible, for his 
royal highness remained insensible on the spot. Persons in- 
stantly ran to his assistance and carried him into a grocer's by 



54: MEMOm OF THE 

the -wayside. In the mean time the postilion succeeded in get- 
ting command over his horses, turned the carriage round, and 
came to the door of the house where the prince was lying. His 
royal highness never recovered his senses. He was placed on 
a bed in a room on the ground floor, and surgical aid sent for. 
The royal sufferer was bled, but it produced no good effect. The 
news of the accident was conveyed to Neuilly. The queen im- 
mediately set out on foot and the king followed. His majesty 
was to be in Paris at 12 o'clook, to hold a council of ministers. 
His carriages which were ready, soon overtook their highnesses, 
who entered them with Madame Adelaide and the princess 
Clementine. He proceeded to the house into which the duke 
of Orleans had been taken. He, by that time, was nearly life- 
less. It may be easy to imagine, but it is impossible to de- 
scribe the grief of their majesties and royal highnesses at the 
spectacle they beheld. Dr. Pasquer, the prince royal's first 
physician, had just arrived, and was soon compelled to an- 
nounce that there was an effusion upon the brain, and every 
moment the danger seemed to increase. A few words pro- 
nounced by the prince in German, gave a momentary hope, but 
it as quickly vanished. Marshals Soult and Gerard, the Minis- 
ters of Justice, Foreign Affairs, the Interior, the Marine, Finances, 
and Public Works, were admitted into the death-chamber of the 
royal duke. At two o'clock, as the case became more desperate, 
the king sent for the duchess de Nemours, who had remained 
at Neuilly. She came attended by her ladies in waiting. No 
pen can paint the aflfiicting scene presented by the chamber 
when the duchess of Nemours entered, and added her bitter 
tears to those of the rest of the family. The queen and 
princesses were on their knees by the bed-side, praying, and 
bathing the head of their departing son and brother with their 
tears. The princes were speechless and sobbing almost to suf- 
focation. The king stood by, silent and motionless, watching 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 56 

with painful anxiety every fluctuation in the countenance of 
his dying heir. Outside the house, the crowd continued every 
moment to increase, every one was overwhehned with conster- 
nation. The cure of Neuilly and his clergy instantly obeyed 
the king's summons. Under the influence of powerful medica- 
ments the agony of the dying prince was prolonged. Life with- 
drew, but very slowlj^, and not without struggling powerfully 
against so much youthful strength. For a moment, respira- 
tion became free, and the beating of the pulse more perceptible. 
As the slightest hopes are grasped by hearts torn with despair, 
this scene of desolation was interrupted by a momentary calm, 
but the gleam soon passed away. At 4 o'clock, the prince 
showed the unequivocal symptoms of departing life, and in 
another half hour, he rendered his soul to God, dying in the arms 
of the king, his father, who at the last moment pressed his 
pps on the forehead of his lost child, hallowed hy the tears of 
the afilicted mother, amid the sobs of the whole famil3^ The 
prince being dead, the king drew the queen into an adjoining 
room, where the assembled ministers and marshals threw 
themselves at her feet, and endeavored to ofier consolation. 
Her Majestj^ exclaimed, " What a dreadful misfortune has be- 
fallen our familjr, but how much greater for France." Her voice 
was then stifled by sobs and tears. The king seeing Marshal 
Gerard absorbed in grief, took his hand and pressed it, with an 
expression that showed his sense of his bereavement, but at the 
same time, a firmness and magnanimity, truly royal. The 
mortal remains of the prince were placed upon a litter and cov- 
ered with a white sheet. The queen refused to get into her 
carriage, declaring her resolution to follow the corpse of her 
son to the chapel at Neuill}^, where she desired them to be de- 
posited. Consequently, a company of the 17th Light Infantry 
was hastily marched down from Corabeine to line the pro- 
cession on each side, and thus those men who had shared with 



56 MEMOIE OF THE 

the prince in all his dangers of the passage of the Iron Gates 
a,nd the heights of Mongara, in Africa, served as the escort of 
his now lifeless body. Several of the men wept and called to 
mind the brilliant valor with which the duke of Orleans had 
assailed the enemy, and at the 'same time, the mild and delicate 
beneficence with which he had ever tempered the necessary 
rigor of command. At 5 o'clock, the mournful procession 
moved towards the Neuilly chapel. General Athalin walked at 
the head of the bier, carried by four non-commissioned officers. 
Behind, followed the queen, princess Adelaide, duchess de 
Nemours, princess Clementine, duke d'Aumale and the duke 
de Montpensier. Then came Marshals Soult and Gerard, the 
ministers, the general officers, the king's household and princes, 
with an immense number of other persons. The sad proces- 
sion moved along the Avenue de Sablonville, and crossing the 
old Neuilly road, entered the royal park and traversed its whole 
length to the chapel. Here their majesties, the princesses and 
princes, after prostrating themselves before the altar, left their 
beloved child and brother, under the guardianship of God. In 
the evening the royal family remained in seclusion, except that 
the king conferred with his ministers. At 7 o'clock. Mon- 
sieur Bertin de Vaux, royal physician, set out for Plombieres, 
where the duchess of Plombieres had gone for the benefit of 
the waters. Amidst all their own affliction, during this disas- 
trous day, the thought of the deprivation sustained by the 
duchess, was never out of the minds of her royal relations, and 
her name was repeatedly invoked in their lamentations. At 
length it was resolved that the duchess de Nemours and the 
princess Clementine should go to her with letters from the 
king and queen, and commenced their journey at 9 o'clock ; 
they met the duchess returning to Neuillv. 



DUCHESS OF OELEANS. 57 



V. 



All these broken hearts were at length sus- 
tained by courage and faith. 

"Yes, the Lord who smites," she writes five 
months after the sad event, "is a merciful Fa- 
ther ; I have an unalterable conviction of this, 
even when I do not experience His consolations. I 
am in the midst of a contest that exacts blind 
faith ; sometimes this faith is very strong, and then 
love and hope lighten my heart like a ray from 
above ; but again, I feel all the weakness of my 
poor human nature and cannot raise my heart to 
Grod. What patience Grod has with us ! How could 
we bear the burden laid upon us without Him ? " 

On the 14th of July of the same year, she writes 
from Dreux : " The date of this letter will suffi- 
ciently apprise you of my anguish in tracing these 



5S MEMOIR OF THE 

lines ; but let not your heart be troubled ; suffer 
not on my account." 

" Tbank God for me ; He has wonderfully sus- 
tained me ; He has granted me his peace, his pres- 
ence ; he has caused me to inhale the perfume of 
eternity, and strengthened and revived my poor, 
•withered, stricken heart ; my soul is filled with 
gratitude to God, whose mercy has caused such 
sweet consolations to spring up in the very bosom 
of death, and pours itself out in constant prayer. 
Upon returning here, I cried unto God : ' let me 
not falter ; leave not my soul to be shipwrecked in 
despair, upon his tomb, where I realize the nothing- 
ness of life, and the mystery of eternity.' God had 
mercy upon me ; he granted me grace to weep 
sweet tears, and I had almost said, tears of joy. 
My heart was filled with the thought of eternal 
felicity, and seemed already raised above the world, 
above my grief ; it seemed already in harmony with 
that beloved soul, and to be enjoying his happiness. 
Peace, joy, hght, mercy ; — praises to the thousand 
times merciful God ! Such are the experiences of 
my soul ; thank Him, who has granted me such 
realization of his love, in the midst of death. The ■ 
preceding days were terrible. Therefore I did not 
write to you. The 6 th was the anniversary of the 
happiest day of my life ; the 7th, that of his de- 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 59 

parture from Plombieres ; tlie 10th, was spent 
in prayers and tears at the chapel erected upon 
the spot where the happiness of my life was de- 
stroyed ; the 11th, was the day of the solemn in- 
auguration ; finally, the 12th, the time of our pil- 
grimage to Dreux : I suffered a thousand deaths, 
and was fearfully depressed, till at the grave I again 
found the Lord. Now, I am at peace with Him, 
with my cross, with my future upon earth. Upon 
the Sabhath, at 10 o'clock, I shall take the com- 
munion in Paris, and beseech God to establish my 
soul in this peace, in this faith, in this love that 
nothing ought longer to trouble." 

But this faith and love, had its rise and fall ; if 
God sometimes granted her soul wings to mount 
and renew its strength, when again drawn towards 
the earth, the burden seemed still more weighty ; — 
with heaven shut out, grief returned with all its 
rankling distress, remembrances and languor ; — a 
familiar face, a date, sufficed to reawaken her an- 
guish. 

" Ah ! what have I not suffered in speaking to 

W of the sacrifice his wife has made for him. 

How happy I deem her in being able to show him 
that she loves him more than all the world, and 
that to follow him she is ready to leave what is 
next dearest to her, her children. How I envy her ! 



60 MEMOIR OF THE 

But why should my tears fall at each, event in life, 
at each foreign circumstance ? My grief is like a 
glass, in which every object is reflected." 

" 1843, My sister-in-law is married. You will 
imagine that I had not courage to be present at the 
ceremony. I have been several times to St. Cloud, 
to see my good Louise. I love her so much, that I 
would go any distance to see her. The warm af- 
fection of the queen and Victoire did me good. I 
felt that each one of the family, suffered on my ac- 
count. My heart was in the past, at Fontainbleau. 
A voice seemed to speak within my heart, of conso- 
lation, of eternity, of reunion. I passed the night 
in writing and thinking. My decision sometimes to 
appear in the parlor, cost me much anguish. The 
condolence of a general, yesterday, completely un- 
nerved me : this often happens. I do not long 
remain in company, but I see the king and queen 
are pleased with the part I have taken, and this 
ought to be an indemnity for my sufferings.'' 

" I have been obliged to receive the ministers 
and royal household with Paris ; the reception was 
in the evening, in the very ajDartments where he ap- 
peared so often. They were brilliantly lighted as on 
former occasions, and presented the aspect of a fete ; 
but alas, what a fete. In the midst of the crowd, 
there was but one thought, one regret ; above all 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 61 

the surrounding group arose the noble cherished 
portrait of the prince painted and placed in my 
saloon by Monsieur Ingres ; aU. my acts must pass 
under his eyes." 

" There is nothing new in our sad and quiet 
home. The beautiful spring days make my children 
smile, and me weep. This season, he loved so 
much ; we walked together, and rejoined the chil- 
dren at Neuilly. There he made me bouquets of the 
earhest flowers, and would not place them in his 
button-hole, as formerly, but said, ' they are not 
sombre enough for a man who has passed his thirti- 
eth year,' He made the children play out of doors 
the whole day, and when I sent for them to come 
in, said to me smiling, 'you think the children 
are only well off, when under your own eye.' We 
dined at five o'clock in order to ride out after din- 
ner. We passed the evening in the fragrant garden 
at Neuilly, making large bouquets. We returned 
at nine o'clock, and conversed upon the light or 
serious subjects of the moment. The politics of the 
day led to the favorite topic, the moral greatness of 
France, its defence, its isolated position, the moral 
valor of the people, etc., etc. I was struck with the 
indefatigable ardor of his mind, and the calm, ad- 
mirable sang-froid, with which he judged his coun- 
try, its position and future. ... 



62 MEMOIK OF THE 

" It is again spring, with, the sweet air he loved 
to breathe, its flowers, its birds which, he noticed, 
and to which he called my attention ; then the hap- 
py children running in the fields ; but every thing is 
changed. The world is no longer the same to me ; 
the heavens, the sun, no longer smile upon me ; or 
rather, their glory oppresses me, and I would hide 
myself, that I might not see this spring-tide, that 
newly awakens my grief." 

And a few weeks later : " You are right in be- 
lieving that the return of this month in which end- 
ed the happiest day of my life (not the happiest in 
itself, but in its promises) has not passed without 
the most harrowing comparisons. Six years ago 
this evening, I saw the sun set for the last time 
upon my native land. The confidence which in- 
spired me through all the journey, then for a mo- 
ment failed. I do not know if you remember the 
pains you had to revive my drooping courage. I 
shall never forget the impressions of that last even- 
ing in Germany. In the midst of animating 
hopes, I experienced an unaccountable grief which 
I attributed to the solemnity of the moment, but 
which seems to me now, like a presentiment of mis- 
fortune ; but if my trials have been great, my hap- 
piness has been without parallel. I endeavor to be 
thankful, not only for the remaining good, but for 
those I have already possessed." 



DTJCHESS OF ORLEANS. 63 

An accident, threatening the life of the entire 
royal family, interrupted the course of these sad 
days, in which she "passed from one degree of 
grief to another." In the account given to her 
friend, she paints her lively gratitude to God, for 
saving her beloved ones, as by a miracle ; yet the 
bitterness of remembrance is mingled with her ex- 
pressions of thanksgiving. 

Chateau d'Eu. 
Yesterday the king wished to go out in the 
char a banc ; I asked permission to accompany 
him with my two children ; this request I had never 
made before. The king placed himself upon the 
first seat with Aumale and Paris ; the queen, my- 
self and Eobert upon the second, Francois and 
Clementine upon the third ; then Joinville and 
Auguste, The king descended to a little village 
upon the banks of the sea, where he visited a bat- 
tery and made Paris fire a cannon, to which he ap- 
plied the lighted match with a courage that en- 
chanted everybody. He remounted the char a banc 
to return to Treport, where he proposed to visit an- 
other battery. To reach Treport. it is necessary to 
cross a bridge over a foaming torrent ; the queen 
begged to alight, declaring that it was dangerous to 
cross so frail a structure ; I had passed upon it 



64: MEMOIR OF THE 

when my horses began to be frightened ; I besought 
the king to let me alight. "Nonsense," he ex- 
claimed, " go on ! " The cannon fired at the same 
moment, the sluice opened, the horses pranced, and 
the three were precipitated into the abyss. The 
char a banc would have been dragged in, if the 
postilion, of the thill-horses had not held them 
with a rare sang-froid, when they were even upon 
the very brink of the precipice. The band happily 
broke and the char a banc was arrested. I cannot 
tell you what I experienced in that moment which 
seemed to me a century. The king and my sons 
safe, I should have feared nothing, I would willing- 
ly have remained within. My heart was deep- 
ly affected in seeing all that I loved saved. I 
thanked God ; nevertheless, there was a little bit- 
terness intermingled with this prayer ; it was not 
entirely pure from murmuring. Why was this pro- 
tection that kept us, tlien denied ? Why now es- 
cape a danger a thousand times greater than that 
which was so fatal in its results ? Not even a 
horse was wounded ! That fall of twenty-five feet 
into a gulf of whirling waters, without receiving a 
scratch ! and then so light a fall that was so de- 
structive ! The more one thinks, the more one mur- 
murs. I do not wish to feel so, yet my poor heart 
is thus constrained against my will. 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 65 

After the accident , tlie king returned with us 
upon foot, to the Treport battery. An immense 
crowd followed him with acclamations of joy ; every 
one seemed happy ; I only wept in the midst of 
this cortege, remembering another, when the king 
also upon foot, giving his arm to the queen, followed 
the victim of a like disaster," 

As we have foreseen, her children only bound 
her to life ; "they only," said she, "make me live, 
and sometimes conceal the dregs of the cup from 
me. A vail of melancholy is cast over everything 
but the joyous life of my children. 

" To-day being Paris' birthday, I invited the 
poor childen from Eu and Treport, here, which 
gave them great pleasure. I also endeavored to 
throw aside all sorrow ; I made myself a child, and 
took a childish pleasure in the enjoyment of those 
around me." 

She mingled her life with that of her sons, and 
the slightest circumstance drew her thoughts in- 
stinctively towards them. 

" I have lately been with the queen to visit 
Monsieur Scheffer. His St. Augustine truly edified 
me ; it is a masterpiece. Nothing could be more 
sublime than St. Monica's countenance ; one would 
believe her to be already in heaven ; her expression is 
full of God ; I was deeply touched, especially, when 
I pressed Paris' hand within my own." 



66 MEMOm OF THE 

The absorbing interest of her mind, was the ed- 
ucation of her sons as their father would have de- 
sired them to be educated, and to work for the 
happiness of France, which she could only do 
through them. It was touching to see so great a 
mind absorbed in the most tender care of their 
health, plays, and early studies ; nothing seemed 
trivial to her, for she always bore in mind the great 
end she wished to attain. Thus, the attention she 
gave to politics, the assiduity with which she fol- 
lowed public discussions, and the just disquietude 
she felt concerning the state of the public mind, 
towards the close of the year 1847, were only varied 
forms of her ever maternal vigilance. . She had that 
sort of sympathy with France, which does not ne- 
cessarily imply approbation, but comprehension of 
the ideas by which a country is agitated. From 
the first, she felt the threatenings that preceded the 
storm, and though she like others could not render 
an exact account of the extent and nature of the 
danger, she long experienced the anxiety that agi- 
tated the minds of many upon the first days of 
February, and which quickly spread to the court. 

She writes in 1847 : " There are subjects in the 
order of the day, that make me blush to open the 
journals. I am sad from the very depths of my 
heart at the general discontent of the public 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 6Y 

mind, and the discredit it reflects upon the higher 
classes. 

" The moral evil does not manifest itself in sud- 
den agitation or outbreaks, hut in the weakness of 
the rulers and indifference of the people. A reac- 
tion must take place. A skilful hand is necessary 
to suppress the disease, a sympathetic heart is 
needed to heal it. Alas ! my thoughts dwell only 
upon one prince who understood this epoch, whose 
delicate soul felt the reaction of his country's moral 
sufferings. He would have known how to temper 
them, and to inspire the country with a new elation ; 
his decision would have seconded his intentions ; 
his wisdom would have diriected the right ; France 
has need of him, but God has taken him from 
her! 

" What will our future be ? This thought 
agitates my nights and troubles my soHtary hours. 
The evil is profound, because it attacks the morali- 
ty of the population. Is it momentary, or is it the 
indication of weakness ? I do not know how to 
judge, but I pray God to send a reviving breath 
over our withered France." 

However exorbitant the claims of the contending 
parties might be, the duchess of Orleans desired 
that they might at least be examined, and was 
aflicted at seeing the king's ministers fully confi- 



68 MEMOIR OF THE 

dent that reason and right were on their side, with- 
out due deliberation. But her fears and preferences 
for a policy that she believed best calculated to es- 
tablish the throne and to calm hostile passions, she 
loyally laid before the royal family, but did not per- 
mit them to extend beyond her own immediate cir- 
cle. If she was mistaken in believing that it was 
possible to prevent the disasters of 1848, it must be 
granted that the measures of many others were at 
fault. Malevolence only can reproach her with hav- 
ing foreseen them, and the only reply worthy of her, 
would be the simple narration of her actions, words 
and even gestures, in that journey on the 24th of 
February, when the suddenness of the shock re- 
vealed the depths of each heart. It is a pity to 
pass in silence the rarest examples of dignity and 
courage, in those sad times. One can scarcely re- 
frain from pausing before the majestic figure of the 
queen, so bold in danger, so submissive in misfor- 
tune ; or not render homage to the prince who so 
nobly sacrificed his rights, confronting all perils, with- 
out other ambition than that of saving the widow 
and children of a tenderly regretted brother. But 
since it belongs to us only to review the facts so 
many times related, and it is our aim to present 
the character of the duchess of Orleans, we must 
follow her alone in the midst of the general disor- 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 69 

der ; it is her alone we must see at tlie Tuileries. 
If we have had the happiness of attaining our end, 
the duchess of Orleans will not appear on that 24th 
of February different from what she was on the 
preceding evening or the morrow, and circumstances 
alone will have served to manifest her noble quali- 
ties. There is always the same melange of femi- 
nine delicacy, decisive action, and exquisite sensi- 
bility. 



YO MEMOIK OF THE 



VI. 



The niglit preceding the 24tli was one of great 
anguish for the princess ; the bravest began to be 
disquieted : " We have not even had strength to 
pray," said she ; and, indeed, what at first seemed 
only a ministerial crisis, suddenly assumed the 
aspect of a revolution. The less they were pre- 
pared, the greater was the disorder ; each moment 
bore away the hope a previous one had excited; 
the most popular names, even, succeeded to the 
power ; — from Guizot to Thiers ; from Thiers to 
Odilon Barrot. The reform — that last concession 
which one would believe magical in its calming 
effect, since it had suppressed factitious passions — 
had been promised, and the news spread from rank 
to rank of the national guard, and produced a pow- 
erful effect upon the groups pressing round the en- 



DTJCHESS OF ORLEANS. Tl 

trance to the Tiiileries. The king, in the midst of 
the counsels and contradictory rumors borne to him 
in the unaccountable confusion, decided to make a 
last effort. Followed by his sons and aides-de-camp, 
several of whom had not even time to put on their 
uniform, he mounted a horse and reviewed the troops 
ranged round the interior court and upon the Place 
du Carrousel. The queen and princesses, near the 
duchess of Orleans and her young sons, are at the 
windows, following him with anxious eyes. Many 
cries of " long live the king," for an instant reani- 
mate their hopes ; but soon they are dissipated by 
shouts of " long live the Eeform !"* The king is 
not deluded. He feels the coldness with which he 
is received by the national guard, and the abandon- 
ment of those upon whom he ought to be able to 
rely ; his countenance expresses neither fear nor 
agitation, but the calm melancholy of .a man 
wounded to the very heart. He returns to his 
apartment, and while he is reflecting for a few mo- 
ments with his head buried in his hands, an officer 
precipitately enters, exclaiming : — " Sir, there is not 
a moment to lose ; give orders, or abdicate." It is 
about eleven o'clock in the morning. The king, 
after a moment's silence, says : *' I have always 

* For an interesting account of this crisis, see vol. 12th of 
the London Illustrated News, published in 1848. — Translator. 



72 MEMOIR OF THE 

been a pacific king ; I will abdicate." Then arising, 
lie opened tlie door to the saloon where the qneen 
and princesses were assembled, and repeated in a 
firm tone : "I will abdicate." 

At these wordc, the queen and princesses rush 
towards him, and conjure him to retract those fatal 
words. The duchess of Orleans bows respectfully 
before him, and takes his hand, which she kisses 
with tenderness ; "Do not abdicate, sir, do not ab- 
dicate," she exclaims, bursting into tears. But the 
king, without replying, returns to his cabinet, fol- 
lowed by the princesses, and slowly writes the act 
of abdication, which he finally reads in a loud voice : 
' ' I abdicate the crown, which the national voice 
called me to wear, in favor of my grandson, the 
count de Paris. May he succeed in the great task 
that falls upon him to-day !" " May he resemble 
his grandfather !" exclaims the queen. The duchess 
of Orleans renews her passionate entreaties with the 
king ; she begs him " not to lay a burden upon his 
grandson that he has not sufficient power to sustain 
himself." Her maternal instinct told her too well, 
that to tear the crown from the king, was not to 
give it to her son. When she can no longer hope 
to obtain any thing by her prayers, and the king has 
finished the last letter of his name, she throws her- 
self, weeping, into the queen's arms. For a few 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 73 

moments they hold each other's hands in silence. 
These moments are short ; — the king is pressed to 
depart ; words of adieu are exchanged in haste. 
He leaves, followed by the queen and several of the 
princesses.* The duke de Montpensier does not 

* The following is Lamartine's account of the king's de- 
parture from the palace : 

" The king took off his uniform, laid his sword upon the 
table, put on a plain black coat, and gave his arm to the queen, 
leaving the palace to the new regime. The silence of this last 
moment was only interrupted by the stifled sobs of the spec- 
tators. Without any striking prestige as a king, this prince 
was beloved as a man; his long experience inspired men's 
minds with confidence, while his attentive affability attached 
him to the hearts of all. His old age, deserted for the first 
time by fortune, excited commiseration. Political superstition 
stood aghast at the sight of this last fugitive from the throne. 
It seemed as if with him the wisdom of the empire was retiring. 
The queen, leaning upon his arm, seemed proud to fall at her 
post with her husband and monarch who had been, and who 
remained without a throne and without a country upon earth. 
The aged couple, inseparable in prosperity and in exile, pre- 
sented a most affecting spectacle. Even republicans would 
have dropped a tear at the departure of this fother and mother, 
driven from the hearth where they thought to leave their 
children. The spectators kissed their hands and touched their 
dress. ... At the moment of crossing the threshold of his 
cabinet, the king, turning back to the duchess of Orleans, who 
had risen to follow him, exclaimed, " Eemain here, Helen !" 
The princess threw herself at his feet, conjuring him to take 
4 



74 MEMOIR OF THE 

hesitate to leave his sick wife iinder tlie care of a 
friend, that he may protect his father's departure. 

The king, in quitting the Tuileries, beheved 
that his absence would appease the tumult, and 
leave his grandson upon the throne, under the direc- 

her with him. She forgot royalty, and thought only of the 
father of her husband. Her entreaties, however, were in 

vain A messenger had been sent to order one of the 

royal carriages, but the mob had already burnt them on the 
Place du Carrousel, and the groom who had gone to order one, 
had been killed by a discharge from the insurgents. It was, 
therefore, necessary to abandon this mode of departure. The 
king left by the door of a subterraneous passage, which leads 
from his apartments to the garden of the Tuileries. He crossed 
on foot that same garden which Louis XVI., Marie Antoinette, 
and their children, had crossed in their flight to the JSTutional 
Assembly, — that path to the scaffold, or to exile, which mon- 
archs never retrace. The queen comforted her husband with 
a few words, uttered in a low tone. A group of faithful ser- 
vants, of ofBcers, women and children, followed in silence. 
Two little hackney carriages, engaged by an officer in disguise, 
on the public stand in the street, drew up at the exit of the 
Tuileries, at the bottom of the terrace. Here the nerves of the 
queen, over-excited by the prolonged crisis she had suffered, 
altogether failed her at the last moment ; she gasped, tottered, 
and fell. The king was obliged to raise her in his arms, and 
place her in a carriage, which he himself immediately entered. 
The duchess de Nemours, the ornament and beauty of the 
court, bathed in tears, entered the second carriage with her 
children, seeking with a restless eye for her husband, who was 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 75 

tion of his daughter-in-law ; but events marched 
more quickly than his imagination could follow. 
Scarcely had he left the palace, when royalty itself 
was in doubt. The insurgents approached the rail- 
ings of the interior court, and threatened to break 

still engaged amidst the difficulties and dangers of his duty. 
A squadron of cuirassiers surrounded the two carriages, which 
set off at full speed along the Quay de Passy, towards St. 
Cloud. The duke de Nemours remained to the last to secure 
the safe departure of the duchess of Orleans. "Whilst the 
evacuation of the palace by the troops was thus effected, a 
small number of officers and counsellors, some devoted to the 
d^^nasty, some to the person, and some only to the misfortunes 
of a lady, were in consultation round the duchess of Orleans 
and her children. . . . The report of three cannons shook the 
■windows of the apartment. It was the artillery of the palace 
which was firing on the people as they issued from the quay 
to the Carrousel. The princess sent General Grourgaud to stop 
the firing, and the artillerymen extinguished their matches in 
token of peace. General Gourgaud returned, and M. Dupin 
followed him. M. Dupin was one of the great authorities of 
public opinion. Whatever course he took, multitudes followed 

in his steps The duchess saw him enter the apartment, 

the presage at once of strength and peace. ' Well, sir,' cried 
she, ' what are you come to tell me V 'I am come to tell you, 
madam,' replied M. Dupin, in a saddened but hopeful tone, 
' that perhaps the part of a second INIaria Theresa is reserved 
for you.' ' Direct me, sir,' replied the princess ; ' my life be- 
longs to France and to my children.' ' Well, then, madam, 
let us depart ; we have not a moment to lose. Let us go to 
the Chamber of Deputies.' 



76 MEMOIR OF THE 

them. The crowd, which had quickly pressed into 
the king's saloon, dispersed, and the duchess of Or- 
leans was only surrounded by her household (not 
one composing it abandoned her for a moment) and 
a few deputies, who pressed her to take the regency, 

This, in fact, was the only course for the duchess to take. 
The cause of the regency, already lost in the streets, might be 
retrieved in the chamber of deputies, if that body in discredit 
among the people, by courtliness of spirit, had preserved suffi- 
cient ascendency to arrest the fall of the monarchy. The pres- 
ence of a Vi^oman, the grace and innocence of a child, were more 
powerful attractions than any speeches. The bloody mantle of 
Osesar, exhibited at the tribune, was less affecting than the 
tears of a young and beautiful woman, presenting her orphan 
child to the representatives of a chivalrous people. 



It has already been stated that the king and queen, with 
the duchess de Nemours and hsr children, seated themselves in 
two hired coaches, on the Place de la Concorde. On reaching 
Saint Cloud, the king took court carriages and proceeded to 
Trianon, where he stopped for a few moments, as if to allow 

time for fortune to overtake him, and arrest his flight 

When evening set in, the king departed, taking the road to 
Dreux, which place he reached early in the night. ... He in- 
formed the Mayor and sub-prefect that it was his intention to 
remain four days at Dreux, and there to await the decision of 
the chambers respecting his future place of residence, and the 
position which the nation might thenceforward allot to him. . . . 
The king retired to rest at two o'clock ; while he was sleeping, 
a friend arrived from Paris and announced the proclamation of 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 77 

as the last chance of saving the monarchy, " It is 
impossible/' she replies, " I cannot bear such a bur- 
den ; it is beyond my strength ; no one is prepared 
to see me regent ; I myself less than any one/'* 
While she is speaking, the sound of guns is heard ; 

the republic. ... A conncilj composed of members of the royal 
family and their friends, was held at the king's bedside. It 
was determined that the members of the family should effect 
their escape separately and in difierent directions. The fugi- 
tives were disguised in clothes of the plainest possible descrip- 
tion. (The account, from page 302 of Lamartine's Works, 
of several pauses and incidents on the route, is most interest- 
ing, but too lengthy to be here introduced.) Through friendly 
mediation, it was arranged that the king should embark at 
Havre, on board of one of the vessels employed in the convey- 
ance of cattle and provisions from France to the English coast. 
Adverse winds prevented the carrying out of this plan. . . . 
The king and queen departed from Havre in a steamer, and 
landed at Newhaven, where he was informed that the hospital- 
ity of his son-in-law, the king of the Belgians, had assigned the 
place of Claremont as his abode." 

* Monsieur Lamartine, in his " History of the Eevolution 
of 1848," expresses his opinion that it was the duchess of Or- 
leans' desire to hold the regency, and that " Louis Philippe 
and his ministers perished under the unforeseen consequences 
of wresting the regency from the young mother of an infant 
king." " If," continues Lamartine, " if instead of laying be- 
fore the people that ambiguous abdication, which made no pro- 
vision for the regency, and which suffered contending parties 
to catch sight of the duke de Nemours behind the formal abdi- 
cation, if M. de Girardin, the bearer of the intelligence, had 



78 MEMOIE OF THE 

a few minutes more, and the Tuileries will be in- 
vaded. She must fly, to save her life and children, 
or face the perils of the day, in order to preserve 
the crown for the count de Paris, and to defend 
the rights of France. Placed between these two 
alternatives, her duty appears clearly defined ; she 
is neither in hesitation or trouble. Taking the 
hands of her two children, she crosses the long gal- 
lery which separates her from her apartment, and 
pauses before their father's portrait : " It is here 
that we must die," says she, calmly ; she then gives 
orders for the doors to be opened, ready to submit, 
with her children, to a frightful death, if her tran- 
quil courage cannot conquer the mobile mind of 

represented before the imagination and the heart of the nation 
a young mother reigning by popular favor in the name of her 
son ; if this beloved princess, untainted with the shadow of a 
charge, had herself appeared in the court of the palace, and 
presented her child to the adoption of the country, there is no 
doubt nature would have triumphed over the people. But the 
duchess of Orleans, even at this last hour, was, as it were, in 
exile with her children in the apartments of the palace assigned 
to her. . . . In M. de Girardin's interview with her, not a word, 
from her, indicated a mortified ambition, or a concealed sorrow. 
Her griefs were unmingled, not only with all political intrigue, 
but even with the feelings of ambition. She exhibited the 
calmness and disinterestedness of a mother who entirely for- 
gets herself amidst the recollections of her husband and her 
hopes for her son," 



DUCHESS OF OELEANS, 79 

the defying multitude, whose shouts already reach 
her. 

At this moment, two deputies hastily entered, 
and in the name of the duke de Nemours, hesought 
her, without delay, to join him at the bridge across 
the garden ; he had watched over the king's depar- 
ture, and returned to lead her safely out of the Tuil- 
eries. She recognized in them aid from heaven ; 
she had no time for questions, and was almost borne 
onward by the multitude, seeking to protect her 
against the bayonets pointed towards the Place du 
Carrousel. As she passed through 1 he garden-gate, 
ilie mob were taking possession of the Tuileries. 

Upon reaching the Place Louis XY., the prin- 
cess perceived the duke de Nemours upon horse- 
back ; but separated by the crowd, she could not 
communicate with him. She was ignorant of the 
measures he had taken to conduct her to St. Cloud. 
Her instinctive courage pressed her towards the 
Boulevards ; there she would find herself confronting 
the true people of Paris, now nothing more than a 
troop of rebels. Perhaps she might perish there ; 
yet perhaps her presence might bring them to reason. 
Monsieur Dupin seeks to turn from this direction. 
A voice cries, " A la Chambre V all repeat " A la 
Chambre," Believing herself to be following the 
direction of the duke de Nemours, she permits her- 



80 MEMOIR OF THE 

self to be led towards that quarter. He himself in 
the distance sees her, without the power to detain 
her, and nothing remains for him but to follow. 
The crowd^ well disposed at this moment, cry, 
" long live the duchess of Orleans !" " long live the 
count de Paris !" while it forms like two walls, be- 
tween which the princess advances, holding the 
count de Paris by the hand, while Monsieur Schef- 
fer, an officer of the national guard, follows, bearing 
the little duke de Chartres, who is ill, in his arms. 
At this moment. Monsieur Odilon Barrot was seek- 
ing in the Tuileries for the duchess, in order to lead 
her to the H6tel-de-Ville ; but he could not force 
an entrance, and returned to the chamber, which he 
reached after her. 

When the princess entered the assembly, the 
disorder was extreme ; the deputies were pressing 
to the tribune ; a strange crowd filled the passages, 
obstructing the progress of the royal cortege. Some 
cry, " away with the princes ; we will have no 
princes here \" others cry still louder, " long live 
the duchess of Orleans ! long live the count de 
Paris !" She takes her place near the tribune, and 
remains there, with her two children at her side ; 
behind her are the persons of her suite, struggling 
to keep the multitude from gathering around her. 
Monsieur Dupin ascends to the desk, and announces 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 81 

that the act of abdication is to be borne by Mon- 
sieur Barrot to the chamber ; in the meantime, he 
insists that the unanimous acclamations with which 
they have welcomed the count de Paris as king, and 
the duchess as regent, be clothed in a legal form. At 
these words, violent protestations burst forth from 
a part of the chambre and tribune. The president 
commands all foreigners to withdraw, and entreats 
the princess to retire, " out of respect to the law." 
" Sir," she replies, " this is a royal session." Sev- 
eral of her friends seeing the tumult increase, en- 
treat her to withdraw. ''If I withdraw from here, 
my sons will never return again," she responds, 
while remaining immovable at her place. But the 
crowd presses, the noise increases, and the heat be- 
comes so excessive that the princes can scarcely 
breathe. The princess permits herself to be led 
through the left gallery, extending round the semi- 
circle, to the higher seats, facing the tribune, and 
there seats herself, with the duke de Nemours and 
her children. At this moment, Monsieur Odilon 
Barrot, returned from the Tuileries, obtains a hear- 
ing, while he proclaims, " the crown of July rests 
upon the head of a child." Then are heard ac- 
clamations of " long Hve the count de Paris !" The 
duchess arises as if about to speak. Upon one side 
of the chamber the cry is, " Speak, speak !" while 
4* 



82 MEMOIR OF THE 

the otlier silences the voice. She utters these 
words : " We are come here, my sons and myself — " 
but is quickly interrupted. She makes a new effort 
to make herself heard, but in vain, and resumes her 
seat. Several orators succeed one another, in a con- 
fusion impossible to describe. Finally, Monsieur 
de Lamartine advances towards the tribune. His 
first words revive the hopes of the princess' friends ; 
but with her sweet and gentle smile, she makes a 
motion of her finger that shows them she does not 
share their illusion. Towards the end of the dis- 
course, violent blows reverberate through the hall ; 
the doors of the journalist department, upon the 
right of the tribune, are forced open by armed men, 
who precipitate themselves into the apartment with 
loud vociferations ; they level their loaded guns, 
and walk from one side of the chamber to the other 
till they perceive the royal group, at which they 
aim. The majority of the deputies withdraw. The 
duchess of Orleans and her sons find themselves 
discovered ; there remains between them and the 
bullets only a remnant of the deputies, who have 
stationed themselves before them. From the calm- 
ness of her countenance, one would judge that she 
was incurring no danger ; leaning over the nearest 
seat, she gently rests her hand upon the shoulder of 
an attendant, and says in a low voice which betrays 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 83 

no emotioiij " what do you counsel me to do ? " 
The reply is, " Madame, the deputies are no longer 
here, we must go to the presidency in order to rally 
the ' chamhre.' " " But how shall I reach there ? " 
she responds, without moving or appearing agitated 
by the bullets flying over her head. " Follow me," re- 
plies Monsieur Jules de Lasteyrie. From seat to seat, 
they descend to the left end of the hall, where they 
find themselves in a passage reserved for delegates, 
leading to a dimly lighted corridor ; two folding doors 
separate it from the hall ; one is open. Monsieur de 
Lasteyrie forces a passage through the crowd with 
his arms ; perceiving a company of national guards 
without the door, he commands them to hastily rank 
around the duchess of Orleans, which they imme- 
diately do."* 

But in the meanwhile, the crowd is again 
formed ; the j)rincess and her children are forced 
against the closed door, and can advance no further. 
She however disengages herself, but before she is able 
to seize the hands of her sons, they are in the dark- 
ness violently separated from her, and she is drag- 
ged to the very hall of the presidency. There, not 

* In her exile the duchess of Orleans sent a souvenir to 
each of these brave men men who, in accomplishing their duty, 
contributed to the preservation of her life upon that day. — Au- 
thor's Note. 



84 MEMOIK OF THE 

finding herself followed by her children, she utters a 
despairing cry that resounds through the hall above 
the noise of the tumult. Only these words are 
heard, pronounced with singular energy :' " My chil- 
dren ! my children/' The children were detained in 
the narrow passage. • The duke de Chartres, over- 
thrown and for an instant lost under the feet of the 
crowd, is recovered and borne to the apartment of 
one of the hussars. A workman in his blouse, 
seized the count de Paris and carried him by force 
in his arms, doubtless in order to defend him, but 
in the midst of the noise, disorder and darkness, 
each mistrusted his neighbor. The unhappy child 
is torn from him and borne, or rather thrown, from 
arm to arm till he reaches the corridor, where Mon- 
sieur de Montguyon lets him down through a win- 
dow into an interior court, and leads him back to 
his mother. 

Scarcely has she seen him, and been assured 
that the youngest one is in safety, than all traces 
of emotion disappear. The sight of her son at once 
restores her presence of mind, and passing instantly 
from violent despair to entire self-possession, she 
again seeks counsel from those around her. A re- 
union of the dispersed deputies was not to be 
dreamed of ; the President's hall might perhaps 
be invaded like the Court of Justice ; the Hotel-des- 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS, 85 

Invalides is the nearest place ; there slie may at 
least find a temporary asylum, and deliberate upon 
the measures best to be taken. A carriage is found 
at the gate ; the princess enters it with the count 
de Paris, escorted by two national guards ; Mon- 
sieur de Lasteyrie, takes the reins from the coach- 
man's hands, in order to hasten departure. Mon- 
sieur Mornay reaches the entrance to the Hotel-des- 
Invalides almost as soon as the duchess. The 
princess ascends to the governor's apartments. By 
a seeming fatality, Marshal Molitor is ill and can- 
not leave his room. There are only a very small 
number of old soldiers around, and it is feared that 
they will refuse to obey the orders of those unknown 
to them. " Let orders be given in my name," says 
the princess, without hesitation. The marshal ex- 
presses his fears for her safety and that of her sons ; 
he represents the isolated position of the H6tel-des- 
Invalides, and its iU defence from within. ''No 
matter, sir," she rephes, " it is a good place to die in, 
if we are not to see to-morrow, or to remain in, if 
we can defend ourselves." 

The duke de Nemours, with several others, has 
rejoined her ; they consult how troops may be re- 
assembled for defence, or how it is possible to 
return to Paris. The princess seeks to communi- 
cate her ardor for resistance, listens to their advice 



86 MEMOIR OF THE 

with calmness, and replies as frankly and with as 
much authority as if she was in ]3eaceahle possession 
of the regency, holding council at the Tuileries. 
Among those who accompanied her, some remain 
near her, while others hasten to different ministers 
and promise to return with the latest news. 

During those hours of anxious waiting, neither 
body nor soul sinks under the weight of fatigue and 
emotion. She is scarcely seen to repose for a mo- 
ment. It is not the excitement of imminent dan- 
ger that inspires her courage, hut a clear and pre- 
cise view of duty, with all its risks. About mid- 
day. Monsieur Biesta arrives from the minister of 
the interior, with the message from him for the 
princess, that in spite of all his efforts, he can only 
summon a very small number of national guards, 
and that the mob are gaining ground and approach- 
ing the Hotel-des-Invalides. Others return from the 
minister of war, and also report that there is no 
longer any thing to hope for, that the insurgents 
already know her retreat, and that her life and that 
of her sons is in great danger. " Is there no one 
here who advises me to remain ? " asked she ; "if 
there is so much as one person, only one, who coun- 
sels me to remain, I will do so. I think more of 
my son's life than of his crown ; but if his life is 
necessary to France, a king, even a king of nine 
years of age, must know how to die." 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 87 

However, at six o'clock in the evening, Monsieur 
Barrot, who had remained all day at the ministers', 
and had not for a moment paused from his gener- 
ous efforts, reaches the Hotel-des-Invalides ; he re- 
lates what had passed at the H6tel-de-Ville, and 
affirms that all is going wrong, that to-morrow it 
will he impossible to renew the contest, but that 
now they must retire from a place that wiU be the 
first point of attack, and which it is no longer pos- 
sible to maintain without troops or munitions. The 
princess is entreated to leave the H6tel-des-Inva- 
lides secretly, and to conceal herself in the neighbor- 
hood, where she can return on the following morn- 
ing if it becomes possible to organize a defence. 
But at no price would she expose the old soldiers to 
dangers she would not share herself. " I wiU re- 
main altogether, or withdraw altogether," is her 
reply. When it was at length decided to leave the 
place, she was conjured to disguise herself in some 
simple dress, that attention might not be attracted 
towards her. She rejects this idea with a measure 
of indignation. " If I am taken," she exclaims, " I 
will be taken as a princess ;" and they were only 
able to prevail upon her to tear off the lace that 
covered her robe. But she was happily not recog- 
nized in the short transit from the Hotel-des-Inva- 
lides to " la rue de Monsieur," which she made 



»» MEMOIR OF THE 

upon foot, leaning upon the arm of Monsieur de 
Mornay. The count de Paris, holding the hand of 
Monsieur de Lasteyrie, followed a few steps behind 
her ; from distance to distance, others of the suite 
dispersed, that no suspicion might be excited ; then 
came the duke de Nemours, who never lost sight of 
her. At his earnest prayers, the duchess of Orleans 
consented to leave Paris, with her son, that same 
evening, upon condition that she might await 
the results of the morrow at a chateau upon the 
environs. Upon entering the carriage, she turned 
towards one who had been with her aU that day, 
and said : " Upon one word, to-morrow, or in ten 
years, I return here." The noise of wheels at night, 
in those deserted streets, attracted the attention of 
a few insurgents ; they called out for an arrest, and 
aimed at the coachman ; but he spurred the horses 
across a barricade, at the risk of shattering the car- 
riage, and thus left Paris,* 

* " The duchess of Orleans had friends at Lille, and the 
numerous force garrisoned in that city might, by her presence, 
have been won from the republic, and urged by enthusiasm to 
defend the cause of a woman and a child. The thought of 
showing herself to the troops, and claiming the throne for her 
son, occurred to the duchess during this last night of her stay 
in France ; but the crime of civil war stood between the throne 
and this thought, and the duchess of Orleans renounced it. . . . 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 89 

Keaching the deserted chateau at night, the 
princess first thought only of refreshment and re- 
pose for her exhausted child ; even this was difficult 
to obtain, for they did not dare light a fire, lest the 
smoke might hetray their presence to the inhabit- 
ants of the ^dllage. She finally laid down beside 
him, and when she saw him quietly sleeping, for 
the first time experienced a feeling of fear. 

Some will perhaps remember the frighful tem- 
pests in the month of February, at the moment when 
the king vainly endeavored to embark for England. 
The princess mistook the sound of the wind for that 
of the beating of drums, and expected every moment 
to see the chamber where her child was reposing, 
invaded. The night and day of Friday was spent 
in like anguish. Upon Saturday, the 26th, the 
duke de Chartres was restored to her, and though 
stilliU, was so happy at seeing his mother and 
brother, that the countenances of all three were 
somewhat brightened. 

At Ems, she was met by her mother. Whilst her memory 
reverted to the pure but short-lived happiness she had enjoyed 
in France, — to her bereavement, her sorrow, and the ruin of 
her fortune through the faults of others, — she tranquilly re- 
signed herself to the doom pronounced by her adopted country, 
where, among persons of ail political parties, the name of the 
duchess of Orleans will ever be associated with sentiments of 
admiration, affection and respect." — Translator. 



90 MEMOIE OF THE 

Evil tidings arrived at the same time from 
Paris. Monsieur de Mornay announced that they 
must not lose a moment, but regain the frontier, 
and brought a passport to Germany, which he had 
obtained with great difficulty. The princess still 
resisted ; she consented to leave Paris, but was un- 
willing to leave France. The count de Paris also 
repeated his wish to remain in his own country, and 
his words seemed to his mother like a warnins: from 
heaven. Her friends still insisted upon her depart- 
ure ; she must go and make preparation. At the 
end of several moments. Monsieur de Montesequion 
who had returned from giving his last orders, found 
her upon her knees, praying aloud ; the count de 
Paris was kneeling beside her, and the duke de 
Chartres, upon his bed, had his little hands clasped 
together. He made a memorandum of her words ; 
they were : " My Grod, protect France, protect my 
poor children, protect the generous host who has not 
shrunk from offering us hospitality in these dan- 
gerous moments ; let this act bring upon the family 
a shower of benedictions, and forbid that the remem- 
brance of our sojourn with them should ever be un- 
welcome." 

A driving rain, violent wind, and complete dark- 
ness, rendered her departure lugubrious enough. 
Few words were uttered ; she only pressed the hand 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 91 

of her hosts, and took the rings from her own fingers 
and placed them upon theirs. 

All the way from Pontoise to Beaumont, the 
railroads were disconnected and the bridges on fire. 
They were obliged to take the post to Amiens. 
At Lille they were obliged to wait several hours for 
the Belgian convoy. The princess and her children 
remained in the coach. Some one recognized them, 
but no one betrayed them. 

In crossing the frontier, the duchess of Orleans 
burst into tears ; monsieur de Mornay, who had ac- 
companied her, could not restrain his own, " Our 
tears are very different," said she to him ; " you 
weep for joy, that we are saved, while I weep for 
grief at leaving France, that France upon which I 
call down all the benedictions of heaven. In what- 
ever place I may die, France knows well, the last 
throbbing of my heart will be for her. 

" When the thought passes through my mind 
that I shall never see France again," said she, many 
years after, " I feel as if my heart would break." 



92 MEMOIE OF THE 



YII. 

It was not fhe ducliess of Orleans' nature, to be 
long overcome by grief. Her courage quickly re- 
turned ; not that courage for action to wliicli slie 
was no longer called, but that cheerful resignation, 
at times almost serene, which she had besought of 
God daily for ten years, and most frequently ob- 
tained. 

" Perhaps this trial," said she, upon reaching 
Cologne, ''will be useful to my sons : in exile they 
will receive such an education as their grandfather 
received. Who knows but it maybe of more value 
to them than any other ? 

She had, as one would imagine, brought nothing 
away from Paris ; the little money gathered up in 
their hasty departure, had been exhausted in the 
journey ; she passed the first days of her exile in 



DrCHESS OF ORLEANS. 93 

the veritable want of all things. Her mother's 
family, it is true, were eager to offer her hospitality, 
and more than hospitality — all that watchful affec- 
tions could desire. She was deeply touched, hut 
declared it was impossible for her to accept any 
thing further than a shelter for herself and fam- 
ily. It was only upon this condition that she 
established herself at Eisenach, early in May. 
There she lived in the most simple manner, till she 
was certain of the fortune that remained to her ; 
she felt this trial less than all others. Indeed she 
did not dwell upon it ; the queen of Belgium in 
her anxiety for her, sent a mutual friend to Eisenach 
to see that her sisters and nephews were in want of 
nothing. She found her in a large room without 
fire, clothed in the light apparel she wore upon 
leaving the Tuileries. The heat of a stove made 
her sick ; a fireplace was a thing unknown in that 
part of Germany ; the princess turned these trials 
into pleasantry. What mattered they to her ? 

A less lofty, gentle soul, would have suffered a 
thousand accessory pains, which, preoccupying the 
mind, sometimes oppresses it more than the misfor- 
tune itself Ee turning as an exile to the place from 
which she had departed in the buoyancy of hope ; 
passing, in a few hours, from the highest to the most 
humble position ; from incessant excitement to the 



94 MEMOIR OF THE 

monotonous repose of a small village ; sinking, after 
tiie agitation of those latter days, into a forced in- 
activity, she had certainly sufficient cause for ennui, 
— that weariness of life which troubles the harmony 
of the soul, and seems, for a time at least, to take 
away its strength ; but the princess was as indif- 
ferent to trivial chagrins as to trivial pleasures. 
She suffered deeply, as she had enjoyed deeply, and 
her heart, far from neglecting consolations cordially 
offered, accepted them with simplicity, almost with 
delight. 

Nothing could be more touching than the wel- 
come with which the inhabitants of Eisenach re- 
ceived the princess ; their discreet sympathy was 
expressed in a thousand ways. Their hearts were 
penetrated with a respectful, tender pity. When 
she passed through the streets, they scarcely fixed 
their eyes upon her, lest they might reawaken her 
grief ; the thought of all was, how they might 
divert and soften it. When the spring returned, 
her chamber, despoiled of all other luxury, was 
always supplied with flowers ; the wealthy inhabit- 
ants contributed their exotics, the poor their wild 
flowers ; all sent their tribute. 

" A truce to complaints/' writes she on the 20th 
of May, 1848 ; " we are in a peaceful valley, where 
anarchy, which elsewhere rumbles, is still silent. 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 95 

You are apprised that I have accepted the hospi- 
tality oiFered hy my uncle with such paternal good- 
ness. Our habitation is just what we need ; the 
house is charming, the country magnificent, the 
brave people discreet and full of delicate sympathy. 
I bless God for having granted me this asylum ; 
but sometimes the separation from all those who 
are dear to me ; the great distance from that family 
I love so dearly, from that mother whom I venerate, 
from that sister, angel of consolation, — anxiety for 
the future, poignant remembrances of the past, 
trouble my soul, and make me almost overlook 
the blessings God still grants. Sometimes I feel 
as if shut up in the very ends of the earth, dead 
yet living, overpowered with thirst to devote my- 
self to that country I love so much, and riveted 
by a chain that wounds at each respiration. My 
existence is but a continual mental contest, in which 
I am animated by one single desire : — the salvation 
and happiness of France. This prayer calms me ; 
I can have no more ardent wish for the country I 

love so passionately We must not fall back 

upon ourselves, but advance, unfalteringly, fixing 
our eyes on high, from whence strength and conso- 
lation will not always be denied." 

While she was writing, a bloody contest was 
again rendering the fate of this country, so ardently 



96 MEMOIK OF THE 

beloved, doubtful. The four days in June, during 
which, this struggle lasted, were more painful for 
her to endure than those of her own peril ; the 
acute suffering, mingled with the accents of patriotic 
pride, are revealed in her letters at this time. 

" 0, my dear friend," she writes on the 9th of 
July, 1848, "what anguish, what torture did I en- 
dure during those four days of suspense, when the 
fate of France, the fate of entire society, was being 
decided at Paris ! when our friends were upon the 
brink of a precipice ; when the family of those so 
devoted to us in exile were running the greatest 
dangers. I could only cry out to God, God has 
saved France, spared our friends ; I bless him for 
it, yet feel my heart oppressed with sadness. What 
a victory ! what an epoch we live in for witnessing 
like contests ! But what energy was displayed in 
resistance ! what heroism, what constancy ! If it 
was necessary to shed blood, we ought to bless God 
that it was not in the name of one of us that it 
flowed. Men actually in power have saved France; 
they reestablish order, they take wise and energetic 
measures, but I fear their time will not be long ; I 
fear that the country is destined to pass through 
many successive crises before it rests upon stable, 
solid foundations. Poor France ! great in its mis- 
fortunes, as in its glory \" 



DUCHESS OF OKLEANS. 97 

In the beginning of the summer of 1849, the 
duchess of Orleans left Eisenach for England. In 
the midst of all the emotions of such an interview, 
her joy in finding herself with her family was great. 
The tone of her correspondence during this visit 
indicates a calm and comparatively happy state of 
mind. Let us not pass over a single expression of 
delight sown here and there in her letters. 

•'Your letter found me in the midst of the fam- 
ily circle," she writes from St. Leonard's. " Our 
passage was rough ; the wind was so high, and the 
sea so tempestuous, that our arrival was greatly 
delayed, besides making us horribly sick. Except 

]Sr , all succumbed to this frightful malady, 

which I deem worse than death, because it stupefies 
while it harasses. My children did not suffer long; 
one was patient and grateful to all who took care 
of him ; the other could ill restrain his anger 
against an evil he could not conq[uer. Instead of 
landing in London at seven o'clock in the morning, 
we did not reach it till four in the afternoon. My 
sister Louise had been waiting for us at the sta- 
tion for eight hours ! You can imagine what this 
interview was for me. It is impossible to describe it. 
I found them better than I had hoped ; but, alas ! 
that impression has been quickly dissipated ; her 
parched skin and emaciation afflict me exceedingly. 
5 



98 MEMOIR OF THE 

Chomel arrives this morning, and will enlighten us 
concerning the extent of the evil. God grant that 
he may not augment my fears ! But I do not 
know how to be sufficiently grateful to Grod for re- 
storing our mother ; she is better than she was the 
moment I left her, and is so affectionate, so tender, 
so angelic towards me. We found her, with all the 
family, waiting with feverish impatience at another 
station. Father was moved and tender ; brothers 
and sisters well. Father is thin, but looks well ; 
he is a little feeble in the evening when drowsiness 
oppresses him, but possesses a strength and clear- 
ness of intellect, with a magnanimity of heart, ad- 
mirable in one so sorely tried. Upon arriving here, 
we found several visitors ; finding myself thus in the 
bosom of my beloved family, and surrounded by old 
faithful friends, the illusion was for the first days 
complete, and bore me above the pain of such sweet 
impressions. Little by little, we feel anew all the 
bitterness of our actual situation. The reunion 
and intimate converse with so many noble and be- 
loved ones, still consoles and softens many griefs. 
I had the joy of witnessing the general surprise at 
the appearance of my children, especially Paris. 
The king, mamma, my brothers, and everybody, 
find him greatly improved, and take great interest 
and delight in him. Mamma is very happy in see- 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 99 

ing these two poor little ones again, and her cheva- 
lier still holds a large place in her heart ; but she 
expresses an infioite tenderness for Paris, who re- 
plies to all her manifestations of interest with less 
reserve than his nature has hitherto admitted of. 
He is in a stage of development, with which Mon- 
sieur Eeguier is well content. The voyage, and 
many things he has seen, doubtless contributed to 
this." 

Upon the eve of returning to Eisenach, she 
writes : " Our domestic life is very sweet. I am 
much with the queen, hence with the king, whose 
affectionate tenderness increases from day to day, 
and makes me shrink from the moment of separa- 
tion. I hope to make frequent sojourns with the 
family ; the first will be upon my dear child's re- 
ceiving his first communion." 

The duchess of Orleans finally returned to Clare- 
mont after a sojourn of several months at Eisenach, 
and devoted herself entirely to the religious educa- 
tion of her son. She remained with him in his cate- 
chetical exercises with the Abb6 Guelle, followed 
him in his retirement, and when she could not join in 
his exercises, united herself to him by prayer. The 
Lutheran doctrine concerning the Holy Eucharist, 
approaches ours nearer than that of any other Prot- 
estant communion. At the moment of her son's 



100 MEMOIR OF THE 

entrance upon Christian and Catholic life, the feel- 
ing of the differences of worship, always painful to 
her, was perhaps less sensibly felt than at other 
times, because she was impressed with a sense of 
union upon the point then most occupying the 
hearts of both. 

Without permitting ourselves to enter into the 
details of a mother's intercourse with her child (ed- 
ifying as it might prove) we must give her own 
touching account of the ceremony witnessed by so 
many friends from France. 

" At eight o'clock, on the morning of the 20th 
of July, 1850, we went with the king and queen, 
followed by all the family and numerous faithful 
friends, to the little French chapel in London. 
Paris was placed at the foot of the altar, between 
the king and myself, before a prayer desk, sur- 
mounted by a lighted torch. He bore in his left 
hand a white scarf, emblem of purity. Before mass 
the Abbe Guelle addressed a beautiful and touch- 
ing exhortation to hitn ; then mass was said, by 
the bishop of London, Doctor Wiseman, a priest 
highly honored by the French clergy. Before the 
time for communion, the bishop made an equally 
fine address, and then the Abbe Guelle led the dear 
child to the altar. He knelt and received the body 
of his Lord with an edifying and devout respect. 



DrCHESS OF ORLEANS. 101 

On returning to the prayer-desk, he passed near the 
king, who raised his hands to bless him. Then the 
dear child turned instinctively towards me, with a 
look that I shall never forget and know not how to 
describe. The bishop then made another address 
to him, and mass being finished we left the chapel 
full of emotion. Paris' demeanor was surprising for 
his age ; full of earnestness and dignity ; every one 
remarked it ; not only the king, who said it was one 
of the most delightful days of his life, not only the 
queen and my brothers who were deeply moved, but 
disinterested strangers were struck with the man- 
ner of that pure, pious, grave, yet artless child. 
Every one wept from sympathy and tenderness. 
Poor Eobert was deeply affected during the ceremo- 
ny. At two o'clock, we found all again in the 
chapel, except the king, whose health requires great 
care. The bishop was again present. Vespers 
were chanted, the Abbe Guelle made a touching ad- 
dress, then Paris at the foot of the altar, read anew 
the vows of baptism in a clear, firm voice. Finally, 
we returned with our hearts full of thanksgiving to 
Grod who loves and blesses children." 

Upon returning from a journey to St. Leonards, 
the duchess of Orleans found the king's health so 
enfeebled that she thought no longer of leaving him. 
She was living near him at Richm'ond, where he died 



102 XrEMOIK OF THE 

upon the 26th of August of that same year (1850), 
in the full possession of his faculties, and in the se- 
renity of an upright man. He received the sacra- 
ments of the church, surrounded hy his family, to 
whom he had ever been a tender father. His life 
ended like his youth, in exile ; hut his riper years 
were not useless to his country, and the eighteen 
years of peace, happiness, and liberty, France owed 
to him, should have led her to a different course 
with regard to him. His last breath was spent in 
enjoining upon his children the duty of not separat- 
ing themselves from the queen. They all replied, 
gathering around him : " She will be always our 
first thought, and we will never leave her." Soon 
they were again called to be united around another 
death-bed, and to weep over one of the most re- 
markable and beloved of beings. Her majesty, the 
queen of the Belgians, in a few weeks followed the 
king. . Every one will recall the effect produced by 
her death, in Belgium, the mourning worn by the 
entire population, even in the most miserable ham- 
lets and her venerated memory already passed into 
tradition ; but the vacancy left in her family by her 
loss, can never be defined.* 

The duchess of Orleans, writes on the 12th of 

* For a fuller account of the death of Louis Philippe, taken 
from London News, see p. 118. 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 103 

October : — " It would be impossible to describe 
the desolation felt by us all, after the loss of our 
second Providence upon earth. God has taken our 
angel from us ; He knows what is best, but His 
designs are impenetrable. Each day we understand 
more and more the greatness of our loss. We weep 
not only for a friend, but a support. Since that 
tutelary angel no longer watches over me, I feel 
anew the isolation of my existence, and in mute 
affliction, fear to love those ardently who still re- 
main to me upon the earth ; for the fourth time in 
my life God has taken those objects from me that 
possessed all my aifection. This sad thought makes 
me sometimes shudder for my children, who may, 
perhaps, some day, share the fate of other objects 
which my love has cherished. Do you blame me 
for these thoughts ? Be indulgent ; look upon 
them only as the result of a succession of misfor- 
tunes ; help me to pray God to lessen the bitterness 
of the cup He gives me to drink. If you could see 
our mother ! if you could hear her words of sub- 
mission and faith that astonish us ! She is truly a 
noble woman. She lives only for heaven. Her only 
thought is of seeing her children and self prepared 
to enter there. She is far above human suffering, 
for God sustains and strengthens her. . . . Alas ! I 
despair of imitating her, and pray God to pardon 



104: MEMOIR OF THE 

me for the degree of sadness into wMcli tliis afflic- 
tion has plunged me." 

Two years passed without any release from the 
monotonous sadness of an exile aggravated by such 
severe misfortunes. The days of the duchess of 
Orleans were passed either at Eisenach or in Eng- 
land ; it Fas in the latter place that she received 
the news of the 2d of December. 

As long as the fate of France remained uncer- 
tain, and the form of government, and the family 
to whom it should be intrusted was only a second- 
ary question, while the rights of society itself were 
in danger of being misunderstood, she followed the 
contest with anguish, but, as we know, also with 
hope ; and this vague hope, which she did not 
even desire to see promptly realized, sufficed to 
animate her patience, to color the distant horizon, 
and to give her wings to cross the intervening space. 

Upon the 2d of December, surprise, uncertainty, 
with regard to the course best to follow, and anxiety 
for her friends, aroused all the powers of her soul ; 
but when she understood that a new period, of in- 
definite duration, was about to open, she was seized 
with a profound and almost bitter sadness. She 
who was mistress of herself in danger, and tranquil 
in the greatest misfortunes, resigning herself into 
the hands of Grod, was now seeking Him, without 



DUCHESS OF OELEANS. 105 

experiencing His peace. She wished to be submis- 
sive, but her heart revolted. " Every thing is against 
me," said she. " Yes, even the Christianity of the 
admirable queen. I am irritated with her for not 
being indignant. She has a word of indulgence 
and charity for every one. I cannot ..." here 
tears overpowered her. Were they tears, of disap- 
pointed ambition ? No, if by that word is under- 
stood sordid desires and selfish purposes ; yes, if it 
implies the sadness of a soul devoured by the ardor 
of a hopeless devotion and profound melancholy 
concerning a destiny impossible to accomplish, and 
an aimless future opening to her sons ; hopeless for 
their country and their cause. 

With this multitude of ideas and divers im- 
pressions, was mingled a measure of disquietude 
for her friends who were suffering for a cause, in 
behalf of which she had no new sacrifices to offer. 
Her foreboding imagination exaggerated the pains 
of their exile. She saw them, for long years, away 
from their families and country, deprived of all 
things. The desire of despoiling herself for them, 
and of manifesting her sympathy, became almost a 
constant thought. One of these exiles related with 
a smile, though deeply moved, that he had received, 
early in January, a packet containing bills of varied 
value, with pieces of gold for all countries. She 
5* 



106 MEMOIE OF THE 

hastily gathered up what she found at hand, think- 
ing that he and his companions in exile, driven 
precipitately from France, without time to arrange 
their affairs, might he in need of money. 

The decrees of the 22d of January found her 
indifferent as far as they concerned herself; they 
would have heen rather a sort of consolation, if 
her natural generosity had heen less active, "As 
to what concerns us," she writes several days before 
the publication of the decrees, " you know that we 
are, thanks to God, raised above all expectation. 
The humiliation of our country, and persecution 
of our friends, is what we feel most. Inasmuch as 
the decree has not been issued, I pray you to use 
freely some of the means I have given you ; I can- 
not altogether renounce the only solace that remains 
to us in misfortune." 

Several months thus rolled away, in this diffi- 
cult period, which she ever painfully remembered. 
Before her sons she maintained self-possession ; 
with them she was cheerful, and with marvellous 
judgment knew how to prevent them from forget- 
ting that they were away from their own country, 
in a time of serious trial, yet to create a pure 
atmosphere around them, guarding them against 
ennui, so hurtful to the development of children, 
and more injurious to their faculties than great mis- 



DUCHESS OF OKLEANS. lOT 

fortunes. But when she was alone, assured that 
her children were engaged either in work or play, 
she was assailed by a thousand mournful thoughts, 
that a word caused to flow forth like a wound 
roughly opened. One day, in taking leave of a 
friend, whom she was questioning with a benevolent 
interest concerning his family, she asked, " What 
is your daughter's name ? " He replied, " She 
bears the name of your royal highness, Helen." 
At these words she burst into tears. " Ah, why 
have you called her Helen ? that name bears mis- 
fortunes," and remained several moments without 
speaking. 

In order to calm her mental agitation, she had 
recourse to forced active physical exercise ; it 
seemed as if she sought fatigue of body in order to 
gain repose of soul ; long walks, and incessant mo- 
tion, served better to distract her thoughts than 
reading and music, which she nevertheless loved 
and appreciated ; she acknowledged frankly, that a 
fixed attention upon subjects foreign to her habitual 
reflections was impossible, No book settled her 
mind, and even prayer could not pervade it. It 
was not that " God was not always in the depths 
of her heart," but that she feared to seek for Him 
there. The profound depths where His image still 
was, seemed hidden by the whirling of the surface 
of the waters. 



108 MEMOIK OF THE 

She felt the need of external distraction, to es- 
cape reflections. She desired to travel, in order for 
some time to escape " the heavy and enervating at- 
mosphere of England, that was killing her." The 
close of the year 1851 and a portion of 1852, she 
divided hetween G-ermany, whither her mother 
naturally attracted her, and Switzerland, which she 
loved in remembrance of her childhood ; but this 
course, undertaken with every advantage for the 
young princes, threatened to become fatal to her. 
On the environs of Lausanne, where the route 
bordered a stream greatly increased by rains, the 
carriage upset and rolled into the water. In a mo- 
ment the princes disengaged themselves and with 
one bound leaped upon the bank ; but as they 
sought for their mother, to their affright they could 
perceive only her hair floating above the waters. 
She had fainted, and was half borne down under 

Madame de Y who had also swooned. They 

had the greatest difficulty in drawing her out. 
Scarcely had she come to herself, when she uttered 
a cry of joy at the sight of her children saved and 
uninjured. The terrified expression of her children 
at the thought of their mother's danger, made a 
more lively impression upon her than even the ac- 
cident itself. Of her dislocated shoulder, and fear- 
ful pains endured during her return in a carriole to 



DUCHESS OF OKLEANS. 109 

Lausanne, she spoke lightly. But she remembered 
with emotion, the care of her sons and friends, and 
the prompt arrival of the queen from England. 
This shock was nevertheless a severe test to so nerv- 
ous a temperament ; the patience of her soul tri- 
umphed over it. Though confined to her bed in a 
strange house, where she was in need of a thousand 
things, notwithstanding the care of her hosts, who 
were moved with pity and sympathy for the lovely 
invalid, she was always cheerful. 

As soon as the duchess of Orleans was in a state 
to leave Lausanne, she set out for England. To- 
wards the beginning of autumn, she rented a dwell- 
ing in Devonshire, the most southern province in 
England, where the aspect, on a bright day, was 
somewhat like Italy ; but the fog that she sought 
to flee from thither pursued her. From the month 
of November till the following April, she saw the 
beautiful view from Kitley, with its noble forests 
and grand lake leading to the sea, only through a 
thick gray curtain and heavy rains. Those monoto- 
nous wintry days and long evenings were well cal- 
culated to oppress a spirit of less energy. She bore 
the trial patiently ; and maintained a cheerful 
bearing by occupying herself continually with the 
thought of others, and by, seeking to enliven the 
circle around her. Her energy never decreased. 



110 MEMOIE OF THE 

She would cross the muddy roads to the environs, 
visit poor families, and interest herself in country 
occupations for the sake of developing a taste for 
them in her children, and of overcoming the ill con- 
sequences of an isolated education by actual obser- 
vation and natural impressions. 

" Kitley is becoming charming," she writes in 
the commencement of April. " Spring invests, it 
with new attractions ; the roads are bordered with 
blooming hedges, rippling waters, and shady woods. 
It is a wild place, where the work of man is little 
seen, yet an agreeable one to live in, I have made 
the acquaintance of several families in the neigh- 
borhood, who are amiable and intellectual." 

She went to see them, invited them often to 
Kitley, in order to make them more at ease, and 
spoke English to them, though forced to smile at 
her own faults. Nothing could be more cordial 
than her welcome as a hostess. Several notes writ- 
ten each evening after a visit to her, present her to 
us under a new aspect, and give a pleasant impres- 
sion of the perpetual attention she lavished upon 
her guests. We see in her what is rarely to be 
found in a woman, the desire to please without the 
slightest thought of self 

" Monday, 20th of June, 1853. I had arisen and 
was arranging my toilette when I heard a gentle 



DUCHESS or OKLEANS. Ill 

knock at the door. It was the princess, already- 
dressed, come to see if I wanted any thing, or was 
fatigued from my journey. She sat down, and we 
had commenced a conversation, when some one an- 
nounced that the physician was there. She left me 
hastily to accompany him to the sick bed of a 
femme de cliamhre ; the latter is German ; the 
physician speaks English only ; she went to trans- 
late the physician's questions and her replies. Af- 
ter several moments she returned ; we resumed our 
conversation, which was several times interrupted 
by necessary household orders ; then the hour for a 
history lesson, at which she was always present, re- 
called her to her children. At noon we assembled 
around the table ; no luxuries here nor elsewhere ; 
all was simple and pleasant. It seems to me that 
there is a certain elegance in the arrangement of 
every thing here. No little superfluity or those ex- 
aggerations of comfort which indicate too great con- 
cern for mere material gratification. The domestics 
appear as part of the family ; they are evidently 
not chosen for their good appearance, but for their 
faithfulness. This domestic life pleases me alto- 
gether." 

"21. We left for Kitley in the middle of the day, 
and returned at nine o'clock in the evening, over- 
come with hunger and fatigue, but charmed with 



112 MEMOIR OF THE 

our journey. The princess' horses were sick, as 
often happens, for want of proper care. We went 
out in a small establishment, and the princess and 
myself could scarcely refrain from laughing, when 
we met Lord Mount Edgecombe's steward at the en- 
trance to his park, mounted ujjon a magnificent 
English horse, ready to escort the princess, and 
making all sorts of apologies, with great gravity, 
for his master's not coming in person. His respect- 
ful bearing contrasted strongly with our poor equi- 
page, but I thought to myself, no one glancing 
within could ever mistake the rank of the occupant. 
She would appear what she is even in a peasant's 
garb and cart. While returning by water, the boat 
inclined for a moment towards one side ; the prin- 
cess uttered a cry of terror ; I smiled in remember- 
ing to how many more serious dangers she had been 
exposed without shrinking. I remarked that she 
never spoke a word" concerning those moments of 
her life." 

" 22. A rainy day. Impossible to move. Kit- 
ley enveloped m a shroiid of fog. I have not ex- 
perienced a moment of ennui. We have commenced 
reading Polyeucte. She appreciates all its beauty 
duly ; but two scenes placed us, as it were, in 
Paris. The future, the past, the present of France, 
the difficulty of resigning herself, the problem of 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 113 

detachment and perpetual trouble, were all dis- 
cussed, and the poor Polyeude remained open on 
the table." 

She asked me to j^lay upon the piano. " Mu- 
sic," said she, " soothes my too poignant thoughts ; 
it varies my feelings, without wounding them. I 
so much wished that Paris might be fond of it, that 
I had teachers for him when he was seven years of 
age ; but that led him to a dislike for it. I wished 
to hasten the time for everything, and to have him 
become a man." 

" 23. Went to Torquay ; in descending to- 
wards the sea, we met an old vendor, whom the 
princess had engaged a year before to polish the 
varied colored stones found upon the strand. She 
recognized him, and stopped the coach in order to 
say good morning, and make several purchases ; the 
poor man's face became radiant with delight. She 
returned to Kitley loaded with presents for all. The 
only luxury she permitted herself, was that of giving 
to others. 

" In the evening, several of the princes' young 
comrades arrived. The rooms were all occupied ; 
the princess had beds prepared in the library, one 
of which she occupied herself" 

Sunday. " This morning, upon returning from 
mass, I found her more than ordinarily sad. I pro- 



114 MEMOIR OF THE 

posed to read aloud some religious work. ' I was 
going to make that request/ she replied. We 
ascended to her simply furnished room, with its 
portraits and souvenirs, and read several pages. ' I 
can scarcely fix my attention,' she exclaimed, at the 
end of a few minutes. We had been speaking of 
her children, and resuroed the subject ; ' I desire to 
attract a serious society about them, in order that 
they may form the acquaintance of distinguished 
men and women ; not frivolous, worldly women, 
but mothers of families interested in their children, 
living good and natural lives. Sometimes an agi- 
tating thought passes through my mind. I am in 
feeble health ; I may die. I can make the sacrifice 
for myself, but think with alarm of my children ! ! ' 
A cloud passed across her face, and a quick appre- 
hension oppressed me, but only for a moment, she 
appeared so well. 

" 26. I took leave of her this morning. She 
wished to rise early, in order that she might help me 
in my preparations for departure. We were all filled 
with emotion, even the children, whose imagination 
she had captivated as well as my own. Why ? I 
cannot say. I have seen as remarkable natures, but 
life seems more delightful with her than with others. 
I do not know another hostess with whom I could 
converse for twelve hours without a moment's ennui. 



DUCHESS OF OELEANS. 115 

I always have something to say to her, because her 
interest never flags. Nothing is a matter of indif- 
ference with her ; her soul is far too great for her 
feeble frame," 

The close of the year 1853 was marked with 
such painful agitations for the duchess of Orleans, 
that we cannot pass it over in entire silence. Great 
reserve is enjoined upon even the subject of these 
agitations. But faithful to our design, we will seek 
only the reflection of the duchess of Orleans' inner 
life, her ideas and feelings. They have an eternal 
value, but will be appreciated according to the 
times and events. 

Upon a question which could concern only a 
distant future, she thought differently from some 
of her friends ; opinions, which she could surrender 
without violence to duty, she gave up. Two 
thoughts directed her whole conduct ; the one con- 
cerning her country, the other her children. She 
believed herself bound to the former by the com- 
pact of 1830, which confided the deposit of its lib- 
erties to the Orleans family ; she believed it her 
duty to keep her children's future inviolate and 
fetterless. She did not feel free to dispose of what 
she regarded as a deposit in her hands, till the mo- 
ment she was to render an account to her sons. 

In view of an immediate and decisive action, if 



116 MEMOIE OF THE 

she had felt assured of the assent of the country 
and the durable happiness of France under a free 
government, and if it had been presented to her as 
the result of its own concourse, she would have been 
ready, we dare affirnij to give up the preferences 
and souvenirs that bound her to the most lively 
impressions of her youth, and to sacrifice even hei 
duties as mother and wife. These duties she could 
only surrender to one greater and more pressing. It 
would still have been her husband's will that guided 
her, since he desired her to subordinate her conduct 
to the wishes of France ; she would have taken 
nothing from the eclat of his name, since that name 
would have participated in the glory common to all 
the Bourbon family. There was no opposition of 
principles between her and her friends, only a dif- 
ferent view of the times, opportunity, and means. 

But when all thought of action was put aside, 
and France seemed tranquil, or at least silent, 
while the matter seemed only desirable or perhaps 
even useful to the interests of her sons, but with- 
out any immediate results for her country, she did 
not believe herself authorized, as mother and guar- 
dian, to dispose of the only good remaining to them ; 
namely, an independent future. It may doubtless 
be said that she was misled and deluded ; but in 
her delusion, there was nothing but what was gen- 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 117 

erous, noble, and perfectly sincere. If she clung 
to them with a certain passionate persistency, it 
was because the most tenacious of all passions are 
those of a mother, above all when she acts in obe- 
dience to a will ever present, and fixed by death. 
But the more firm were her convictions, the more 
acutely she suffered ; she felt the need of commu- 
nion with those whom she loved and admired, and 
whose titles she was proud of. Her tenderness, 
even, carried her beyond herself. In complete union, 
the slightest clouds might become great griefs, 
which would scarcely be noticed in relations less 
near ; the ardor with which she would seek to dis- 
pel them might increase them. At a distance, on 
the contrary, circumstances might dissipate the 
lightest clouds, and render the bonds more affec- 
tionate and sweet. This soon happened ; and the 
duchess of Orleans' last return to England, was the 
happiest and most exempt from agitation of the ten 
years of her exile ; while the joys of domestic life, 
which were ever so dear to her, were felt in their 
full sweetness. 

The winter of 1856, which she passed in Italy, 
strengthened her feeble health. " The impression 
my journey left upon me," she writes from G-enoa, 
"is that of delight. Follow my example ; come 
beneath this incomparable shy, where to live and en- 
joy is one and the same thing." 



118 MEMOIR OF THE 

TRANSLATOR'S NOTE. 

The following article on the death of Louis Philippe ap- 
peared at the time in the London News : 

Louis Philippe died on the morning of the 26th instant, at 
Claremont, in the presence of the queen and several members 
of his family. He had been made aware of his approaching 
end early the previous day, and receiving the melancholy inti- 
mation with calmness, prepared for the final arrangements 
he wished to make. After a conversation with the queen, he 
dictated with remarkable clearness the concluding portions of 
his Memoirs, and then, having caused to be assembled his 
chaplain, the Abb6 Quelle, and all his children and grandchildren 
who were at Claremont, he received with resignation and firm- 
ness the last rites of the Catholic Church. Towards seven in 
the evening, the debility that had oppressed him appeared to 
pass off, and fever came on, which continued during the night 
with great violence, but without disturbing his composure of 
mind. At eight o'clock in the morning he expired, in the 
presence of his devoted wife and of the following members of 
his family: the duchess of Orleans, the count of Paris, the 
duke de Chartres, the duke and duchess de Nemours, the 
prince and princess de Jomville, the duke and duchess d'Au- 
male, and the duchess Augusta of Sase-Ooburg. Thus ended 
the closing scene of the life of Louis Philippe of Orleans, once 
the sovereign of a great people, the soldier of one revolution, 
the conqueror of a second, and the victim of a third. 



The following account of his life will doubtless prove inter- 
esting in this connection : 

Louis Philippe was born in Paris, on the 6th of October. 



DUCHESS OF OKLEANS. 119 

1773. The care of the young prince's education was assigned 
to Madame de Genhs, and ably and admirably did that eminent 
woman perform the duties intrusted to her. From her guid- 
ance Louis Philippe immediately passed to the busy arena of 
active life. In 1791, war being declared against Austria, the 
duke made his first campaign, fighting with gallantry under 
Kellerman at Valmy and with Dumouriez at Jemappes. But 
the horrors of the revolution were progressing with gigantic 
strides ; the unfortunate Louis XVI. was carried to the scaffold, 
and within a few months after, the duke of Orleans was seized 
on a plea of conspiracy against the French nation, and after a 
mock trial, consigned to the executioner. A short time pre- 
vious to the death of his father, the duke de Chartres had ef- 
fected his escape through Belgium into Switzerland, and was 
there joined by his sister Adelaide and Madame de Genlis. We 
can here only mention this romantic period of his life, and glance 
at his wanderings through Switzerland, Denmark, Lapland, 
Finland, America, and England. For one year he held the ap- 
pointment of professor in the college of Eeichenau, at a salary 
of £58, and for that sum undertook to teach history, mathe- 
matics, and English. He bore the name of Chabaud Latour, 
and none but the superiors of the institution were aware of his 
rank. The news of his father's execution reached him while 
quietly instructing the youth of Eeichenau, and he instantly 
threw up his professorship, and after a protracted journey 
through Northern Europe, succeeded by the kind intervention 
of jMr. Morris, the American ambassador at Paris, in reaching 
the New "World, where he landed in Philadelphia, 24th October, 
179G, and was joined by his three brothers. They spent the 
winter in that city, and afterwards visited General Washington 
at Mount Vernon. Their residence in the United States was, 
however, short. Louis Philippe's two brothers died within a 



1 20 MEMOIE OF THE 

few years, one in England, the other at Malta. He accompanied 
his last remaining brother to Malta, and after his interment, 
sailed for Sicily, on the invitation of the king of Naples. There he 
gained the affections of the princess Amelia, and their marriage 
took place in November, 1809. In the year 1814, on the abdi- 
cation of Napoleon, he returned to Paris, and for a short period 
was in the full enjoyment of all his honors. In 1815, Napoleon's 
escape from Elba called the duke of Orleans into active em- 
ployment, and he proceeded, in obedience to the desire of Louis 
XVIII., to take the command of the Army of the North. In 
this situation he remained until the 24th of March, when he 
surrendered his command to the duke de Treviso, and returned 
to Twickenham. After the Hundred Days, the duke of Orleans 
obeyed the ordinance authorizing all the princes of royal blood 
to take their seat in the chamber of the peers ; but subsequent- 
ly incurring the jealousy and displeasure of the Court, he re- 
sought his old residence on the Thames, and dwelt there in 
seclusion until 1817, when he returned to France, and devoted 
himself to the education of his children, until the Revolution of 
1830 broke out, ending in his elevation to the Throne of 
France. The circumstances of his reign until his final abdica- 
tion of the Throne, and exile to England, are well known. 



In the following extract will be found a detailed account of 
the last honors paid to the deceased ex-king : 

The apartments at Claremont occupied by the ex-king and 
queen, were upon the ground floor of the mansion ; they com- 
prised the library, dining-room, gallery, breakfast-room, and 
the state bed-room, in which princess Charlotte died in 1817. 
After the arrival of the royal exiles, some changes were made 
in the appropriation of the apartments. The gallery was con- 



DUCHESS OF OKLEANS. 121 

verted into a private chapel j the bed-room of the princess 
Charlotte became the cabinet of the ex-king, and the adjoining 
dressing-room the bed-chamber of the ex-king and queen. In 
this room Louis Philippe expired. His body was embalmed 
and placed in four coffins. The inner coffin, containing the 
remains, Avas of Spanish mahogany, lined with white satin, 
and covered with lead ; the third coffin was of highly polished 
mahogany; and the outer, or state-coffin, was of the same 
material, covered with rich black Genoa velvet, thickly stud- 
ded with silver nails, with ornaments and handles of the same 
metal, richly chased ; on either side were the arms of the 
house of Orleans ; the plate on the lid was surmounted with a 
regal crown, underneath which were three fleurs-de-lis, and the 
following inscription : 

LOUIS PHILIPPE ler., 

Roi DEs Franqois, 

Ne a Paris 

Le 6 Octobre, 1773. 

MoRT A Claremont, 

(Conte de Surrey, Angleterre,) 

Le 26 Ao4t, 1850. 

In the centre of the royal chapel at Claremont, a platform 
was raised, upon which was placed, upon trestles, the coffin 
containing the body of the ex-king. The coffin was surrounded 
by twenty-four lighted wax tapers, and was covered with a black 
velvet pall, fringed with silver, and in the centre of which was a 
cross, extending the length of the coffin, worked in silver. The 
chapel walls were hung with black cloth, and the external light 
carefully excluded. On one side of the chapel a bench was 
placed for the accommodation of the ex-queen and the female 
relatives of the ex-monarch ; but the space -within the chapel 
6 



122 MEMOIK OF THE 

was so limited that none but the members of the late king's 
family and their immediate attendants could be admitted 
within its precincts. Seats were placed in an adjoining room, 
into which a small door opened from the chapel, for the stran- 
gers who attended the solemnity ; but they could merely obtain 
a glimpse of the tapers burning on the altar, and occasionally 
hear the low tone of the officiating priest chanting the solemn 
cadence of portions of the mass for the dead. At nine, the 
ex-queen, with the princes and princesses, entered the chapel 
and took their places, the queen on the left, and the princes on 
the right of the catafalque. The king's former aides-de-camp 
stood behind the catafalque. After the service of the " lesser 
hours," mass was celebrated by the grand vicar. Dr. White, of 
the London district, assisted by the Abb6s Tongel and Levas- 
seur, of the French chapel in London, and by the Abb6s 
Guelle and Orabot, respective almoner and chaplain to the 
king, and by the Abb6 Coquerlan, canon of St. Deny's, who 
arrived on the previous day to perform the pious duty. After 
the mass, during which the prayer for the dead was chanted in 
full choir, the Abbe White gave the absolution. Immediately 
after the clergy, the queen passed around the catafalque, and 
sprinkled the coffin of her royal husband with holy water. At 
a quarter past ten o'clock the visitors were directed to form a 
line from the door of the chapel, along the vestibule, and the 
melancholy procession, which had been arranged within the 
chapel, passed between them, towards the final resting-place of 
the ex-king. Between Esher and Wey bridge, the procession 
(in which were marked many persons of illustrious rank) was 
joined by many gentlemen on horseback, who fell in before 
the hearse, riding three abreast. The procession moved slowly 
towards Hersham, along the narrow lane overhung with elm, 
oak, chesnut. and beach-trees. At Esher, the green was 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 123 

crowded with rustics. Many of the inhabitants evinced their 
respect for the ex-king by closing the window-blinds of their 
shops and houses. At Ilersham the street was lined with 
persons, who received the sad procession with every demon- 
stration of respect, many of the men remaining with their 
heads uncovered while the hearse passed. The procession 
having reached Weybridge, the mortal remiains of the king, 
followed by the princes and all the attendants, were borne 
across Miss Taylor's garden to the chapel, where a long mass 
was celebrated by the Abbe Crabot. The ex-queen and prin- 
cesses occupied the chapel gallery ; their royal highnesses, the 
count de Paris and the duke de Nemours, were on the right of 
the coifin ; the prince de Joinville and the duke d'Aumale on 
the left. After the mass, the body was removed to the vault, 
where it is destined to repose until France shall have opened 
its gates to the family of Orleans, and given the sons of the 
ex-king the right to deposit the mortal remains of their father 
in the tomb which he himself built in the sepulchral chapel of 
Dreux, and which already contains the relics of his sister and 
eldest son. After the last prayers had been pronounced, the 
princes once more sprinkled the coffin with holy water, and 
kneeling amidst the tears of all the attendants, fervently kissed 
the repository of the remains of their father. They were deepl}"- 
affected, and it was not without difficulty that they were event- 
ually induced to quit the vault. 

The tomb in which the coffin is enclosed is a simple monu- 
ment, covered with a large slab, attached by the upper end of 
the wall, and supported by two small columns. On the portion 
nearest the wall are sculptured, in relief, the arms of the ex- 
king, surmounted by a royal crown, and beneath the escutcheon 
is a Latin inscription. 



124 MEMOIR OF THE 

Louisa Isabella, eldest daughter of Louis Philippe, was born 
at Palermo, 3d of April, 1812, Her sister, duchess Mary of 
Wittemberg, the accomplished sculptor, was her junior by just 
one year. (The exquisite creation in marble of Joan la Pucelle 
d'Orleans was hers ;) she died in 1839. They grew up in the 
closest affection, which was only severed by death. The care 
of their education was intrusted to Madame de Mallet, who, 
under the superintendence of their admirable mother, provided 
the most distinguished professors for the different branches of 
their education. They both derived the utmost advantage 
from them. The talent of the princess is stamped with lasting 
fame. She died in 1839. The worth of the princess Louisa, 
though not so dazzling, was no less solid. In her, the worldly 
wisdom of her father, and the Christian affection of her mother, 
appeared to combine. She was the favorite child of Louis 
Philippe, and he often acknowledged the benefits of her coun- 
sels. In the year 1832, on the 9th of August, she became the 
bride of Leopold, king of the Belgians, the sovereign of the 
people's choice and of their never-varying affection. Queen 
Victoria and Queen Louisa were intimate friends ; they were 
frequently together, and when separated, corresponded. It is 
said that Queen Victoria wrote in French, that she might have 
the opportunity of addressing her friend with the " tu " and 
" toi," and other graceful familiarities of that language. After 
a union of eighteen years, so beneficial to her consort and his 
people, the queen of the Belgians, still young, and the doting 
mother of a youthful family, received the awful summons to 
lay down her eartblj'- crown, with calm fortitude and resigna- 
tion, and departed amid many princely tears and the no less 
heartfelt sorrow of a people whom she loved so well. Queen 
Louisa leaves three surviving children ; she died of phthisis, 
at Ostend, on the 11th instant, (1850.) On the night of the 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 125 

9lh, her majesty had a few hours' rest ; but at six o'clock nest 
morning her majesty fell into a state of general and fatal pros- 
tration. After a short time she, however, rallied and regained 
sufficient strength to converse with her confessor. Although 
greatly exhausted, she retained the possession of all her mental 
faculties, and at two o'clock, on the afternoon of the 10th, 
received the communion and extreme unction. Though a prey 
to the most excruciating pain, she could console her afflicted 
husband. She had previously taken farewell of all the mem- 
bers of her family, and just before expiring, affectionately 
pressed the hand of her royal consort, which grasped her own 
till life was gone. On the morning of her funeral, the king 
and the duchess of Orleans attended service in the English 
Protestant chapel at Ostend, and shortly after the duchess of 
Orleans left Belgium for London. The queen of the Belgians 
was buried according to all the rites of the Catholic church. 



126 MEMOIR OF THE 



VIII. 

She left Genoa in the spring 1857, and estab- 
lislied herself at Thames-Ditton, a small village on 
the banks of the Thames, a short distance from 
Claremont and Twickenham. The duke and duch- 
ess de Montpensier, the princess of Cohurg and chil- 
dren, joined the family circle. The accouchement 
of the duchess de Nemours was anticipated as a 
happy event ; she had never been more beautiful 
and happy than since her exile. Complete union 
arising from sympathy of heart and mind, cast a 
gentle sweetness over the lives of all. 

The family met every evening at one of the 
houses at Twickenham, Eichmond, Thames-Ditton, 
or Claremont. Nothing could be more cheering or 
sacred than these reunions, where children of all 
ages, beautiful as angels and full of vivacity, though 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 127 

docile at the least signal, forced their parents to be 
cheerful. The queen bestowed a smile upon this 
little troop, and her eyes rested with pride upon 
each one of her daughters-in-law, come from coun- 
tries so different, with accents so diverse, all united 
in the same devotion and love for herself. 

For the royal family, that summer of 1857 was 
like a moment of respite in grief. Never, since 
1848, had the duchess of Orleans spent such tran- 
quil, days ; she felt it with gratitude. 

"I feel inexpressibly happy," writes she, "in 
seeing my sons developing according to my heart's 
desire, strengthened in good, and in finding their 
young souls manifesting an almost paternal tender- 
ness for me ; taking care of their mother as if she 
had been confided to their solicitude, and in my ill 
health rendering me great assistance. The age of 
my eldest is, in my estimation, that most charming 
in the life of a man ; he has all the candor of early 
youth, the rectitude of principles not yet shaken, 
with freshness of feeling and an ever-increasing deci- 
sion and desire for constant advancement. Eobert, 
though stiU young, manifests maturity with in- 
fantine purity, and his lively and sometimes vehe- 
ment nature is moderated by daily increasing wis- 
dom. You will say : you are blind concerning your 
sons. I assure you I am not : recognizing the ben- 



128 • MEMOIR OF THE 

edictions God has accorded us in the midst of suf- 
ferings is not hlindness, I shall always be very ex- 
acting, and desire that they should attain a very 
high end." 

After so many trials and deceptions her intense 
prayer was at length granted. The work to which 
she had devoted her life fully succeeded, and an 
anxious affection was succeeded by a feeling of en- 
tire confidence. " I cannot express the change 
manifested in Paris," said she ; ''I no longer pro- 
tect him, it is he who protects me ; I love to see a 
conscience in him separate from mine. When he 
is not of the same opinion as myself, I am almost 
delighted. I dare say it, I have respect for him." 

She was not alone in her judgment, and that 
deference awakened by a profound and serious na- 
ture, was already mingled with the paternal aifec- 
tion he inspired in his uncle. The perfect union of 
the two brothers, betokened that their future would 
be what it ought. 

The future always occupied her thoughts. Her 
ardor for all the lofty interests of this world had 
not diminished, but a life consecrated to duty al- 
ways led her to a certain forecast. Her most lively 
desires and passionate affections were little by lit- 
tle despoiled of all that was purely personal. 

" I feel as if the glimmer of entire detachment," 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 129 

said she, " would dispel even maternal ambition in 
my soul ; but these moments are fugitive, the face 
of heaven is obscured and life returns." Then she 
added with her usual natural sincerity : ."it is not 
detachment from the things of this world that is 
difficult ; but the preference for things of heaven. 
Action distracts me, and the little things of life dis- 
turb me. How humiliating is the examination of 
one's self" 

We recall the expression of her countenance.; it 
was serious but not depressed. Notwithstanding 
the shocks she had received, she could still enjoy 
deeply, and many ties still bound her to earth. 

" We to-day celebrated Paris' birthday," she 
writes. " God has granted him nineteen years. 
My heart seemed too small to contain so much joy, 
and this joy will never be disturbed by this beloved 
child. I am confident in saying that he will never, 
to the end of my days, disappoint my expectations. 
All the family were reunited at my house ; the f^te 
was beautiful and delightful." 

They were again called to meet at Claremont. 
The duchess de Nemours had given birth to a 
princess ; she was recovering rapidly ; the child was 
beautiful as its mother, but the presentiments of 
those who were influenced by superstition, were con- 
firmed, when, on the 10th of November, at the 
6* 



130 MEMOIR OF THE 

moment when the duke de Nemours was leaving the 
princess in health, and smiling with the thought of 
rising on the morrow, God suddenly called her, and 
that pure soul ascended to him with His name upon 
her Hps. 

The family can testify what depth of heart and 
ingenuous sympathy the duchess of Orleans mani- 
fested on this occasion. She had lost a beloved 
friend ; her emotions were deep ; but she felt that 
she must not allow herself to be overcome by them 
in the presence of others more directly afflicted, and 
set them an example of strength and submission. 
She was never weary of admiring what perfection 
faith added to the pure soul of the queen, who 
never rebelled at misfortune, but accepted it with 
tranquil dignity. She reproached herself for not 
being as resigned and weaned from the world as the 
queen. Her courage, nevertheless, was not less, 
but she was of a different age and nature, and called 
to other duties ; she still had work to do in lif^. 
She thought depression fatal to young minds, and 
for their sakes sought always to rise above it. " I 
will not be discouraged,'' she would often say, with 
vivacity, " but take pleasure in surmounting diffi- 
culties." When one day glancing at the title of 
books upon her youngest son's table, her eye lighted 
upon Nicole's Essays : " Oh !" said she, " I do not 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 131 

like that book for young persons ; it detaches them 
too soon from life, and renders them incapable of 
action." 

She constantly feared lest she and her children 
should lose the activity necessary to life; and those 
who knew her at this epoch, when sad impressions 
filled her mind, noticed greater energy of will. 
Were these vague feelings caused by her failing 
health ? Was she doubtful of the final triumph 
of purposes to which she had devoted her life, and 
consecrated to her sons' future P What illusions 
had been dispelled ? Sometimes she would sadly 
ask if she should never see an end to the indifier- 
ence manifested on the part of France towards 
opinions as well as persons. To her nothing was 
changed ; the two feelings that had sustained her, 
love for her country and faith in the advancement 
of the liberal cause, always remained ; but they 
were colored by graver tints. She judged events 
with more calmness and less confidence, foreboding 
even success with anxiety. 

The news of the attempt on the 14th of Jan- 
uary filled her with horror. She was alarmed and 
almost humiliated at the moral state of society in 
which such crimes could be committed without any 
public manifestation of emotion. 

" That attempt/' she writes from Richmond, 



1-32 MEMOIE OF THE 

" was the most odious of all, and one is asliamed of 
humanity when seeing to what purpose the dis- 
coveries of sciences are applied. I have a horror of 
the fruits of such a crime. . . . One cannot think 
of what stat« our French society may be in, after 
this, without great emotion. The contest appears 
inevitable, and will be terrible. Our part is very 
plain and humble. We can only pray to God and 
exhort our sons ; thus we shall not be useless." 

Eeligious thoughts, which always held the first 
place in the duchess of Orleans' heart, even when 
most distracted by the active duties of life, now 
pervaded it more and more. She was at once too 
serious and sincere to approach these subjects when 
absorbed by the occupations of the moment, or 
when she could not speak of them with complete 
freedom ; but the natural inclination of her mind 
always led her to them, and the more her hopes in 
life were blighted, the more she sought the resources 
of faith ; but what sufferings for her, even here ! 
The sombre form of Anglican worship did not please 
her imagination. . . . She could neither follow it in 
her own tongue, nor be reminded of the forms of her 
infancy and country. She could only in worship 
join with her sons in what was not interdicted by 
the doctrines she professed. Upon Catholic fete 
days she accompajiied them to tjie church, read with 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 133 

them their religions works every evening, and her 
mind, always alert in seeking points of agreement, 
took great delight in these common occupations, and 
could sympathize in even the foundations of Christian 
faith. But she was too loyal to wish to find a 
complete union of sentiments where she knew 
differences ought to subsist. She had promised to 
make her sons fervent Catholics ; this she did, but 
remained herself a Protestant. It is not surprising 
that her melancholy feelings were rendered even 
more sensible upon the return of the Sabbath, for 
she was alone isolated in the midst of all those 
Christian groups. All spirit of controversy, God 
knows, was far from that sincere Christian soul, but 
how could she help lamenting being deprived in 
this world of a consolation granted to all of her dear 
ones — unity in one faith. 

During these days, which were far from being 
thought the last of her life, the princess showed in- 
creasino; fervor. She desired to form several exclu- 
sively religious relations, as if she would seek a 
momentary distraction from all political agitation, 
and prepare herself by the aids of religion for the 
last and perhaps most difficult act of maternal devo- 
tion. She was going to voluntarily separate herself 
from her sons, who were about to undertake a journey 
on the continent. It was not without anxiety that 



134 MEMOIR OP THE 

she saw the approach of their departure ; but 
she well understood that the moment had come 
for her to trust to the results of an education in 
which no care had heen spared ; their decided 
characters no longer needed daily direction. Her 
work as a mother was finished. God spared her 
this separation, but revealed to her the moment of 
a longer and final separation. 

In the beginning of the month of May, the 
princess was forced to leave the house she had rent- 
ed at Kichmond ; she had great trouble in finding 
a habitation for the remainder of the summer, and 
was compelled to take the only one vacant at that 
time. 

Cranbourn House is situated, like almost all the 
villas of Richmond, upon the banks of the Thames ; 
but, as it is upon the declivity of the hill, and thick- 
ly surrounded by trees, whose shadows extend even 
to the windows of the basement, the aspect is som- 
bre, and dampness more sensible than elsewhere. 
Upon arriving, the duchess of Orleans remarked 
that the entrance was gloomy, and that the railings, 
painted black, as was common in English places, 
" resembled the entrance of a tomb." 

She did not attach to this prophetic word any 
lugubrious impression, and soon gave a graceful, 
cheerful aspect to Cranbourn House ; an abundance 



DUCUESS OF ORLEANS. 135 

of flowers, filling the air with delicious perfume, 
quickly dispelled the first impression. 

The duke de Chartres fell ill on the first days 
of May, The duchess of Orleans was not seriously 
disquieted. Yet she confided the care of him to no 
other person. She was constantly entering his 
chamber, and spent more than one sleepless night. 
Her agitation at first, then the joy of his recovery, 
enfeebled her frail constitution ; or rather it was al- 
ready broken. These secondary causes, so weighty 
to those who survive, and which afibrd nourishment 
for grief, were in reality but small measures in the 
exact scales in which God weighs out our days. A 
succession of emotions, while exhausting her body, 
lent her a factitious strength even to the end. How 
many storms had passed over this tender plant ! 
These were the last gentle billows that were to bear 
her away. 

Upon Sunday the 9th of May, she received a 
visitor from Paris, and conversed with great ani- 
mation upon the state of France and its diverse 
chances for the future. Already suffering from a 
cold, she was obliged by "Wednesday to keep hei 
bed. Her feebleness was much greater than could 
be explained by the nature of the disease ; no one 
felt at all disquieted about her. A letter from the 
prince de Joinville, alone seems to testify to any 



136 MEMOIK OF THE 

apprehension of danger. But every one around 
her lavished the greatest care upon her ; her feehle 
health always rendered this necessary ; not one had 
any idea of alarm ; she, less than any one. Upon 

Thursday, Ascension morning, as Madame B , 

who hardly ever left her, was preparing hastily for 
church in order that she might return before the 
duchess' time for rising, she reproachfully said : 
" Why do you rise so early ? Is it in order to pray 
for me ? " " Yes, as I do every day ; I ask Grod 
for the happiness of madame and her sons; hut 
madame will pardon me, I never dare express more 
definite wishes," " You are right," replied she ; 
" it is thus one ought to pray ; we know so little 
what is good for us." 

Violent coughing, followed by faintings and 
nervous paroxysms, returned several times upon 
Saturday and Sunday. When scarcely recovered, 
she resumed conversation with her ordinary vivaci- 
ty, and above all when her sons were in the room. 
Her physician besought her not to talk so much. 
" Let me at least look at them," she replied. 

She would scarcely allow herself to be treated as 
ill, for fear of distressing those around her ; besides 
she then felt no pain. In a moment when the 
nervous paroxysm was most painful, she asked her 
friend to hold her hand in hers, for it soothed her ; 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 137 

but immediately turning to her jDliysician asked : " Is 
it contagious ? " The first days she did not wish 
any one to watch with her ; when she consented, 
the fear of fatiguing her attendants led her to desire 
a nurse. Hfer friends thought of sending to France 
for a sister of ihe^" JBon-Secours " who had watched 
with the king in his last illness ; but she, recalling 
the establishment of Deaconesses, also consecrated 
to the care of the sick, said : " I should like to be 
taken care of by that good sister, but I desire to do 
something for my persuasion, and think it will be 
best to apply to the Deaconesses." The letter, now 
written, did not reach Paris in time. 

Upon Monday the I7th of May, about noon, she 
was oppressed with a sense of suffocation and weak- 
ness ; she remained for some time motionless and 
almost without life. When they begged her to sit 
up, thinking she might breathe more freely in that 
posture, she replied with extreme slowness, " I can 
do so no longer." The crisis however passed, and 
she, so clear-sighted, saw no anxiety impressed upon 
the countenances of her friends. She was so tran- 
quil, that the physician even was somewhat en- 
couraged. 

The day passed without any new drawback ; 
she slept at intervals under influence of the remedies 
given for her cough. In this half sleep, she was 



138 mp:moir of the 

heard to pronounce several words in a sorl: of can- 
tilene rhytlim ; all tliat could be understood were, 
'' My parents are interred in a purchased piece of 
ground." But when she awoke, her mind was as 
clear as ordinarily. She asked for her sons, " It is 
a long time since I have seen them." Some one 
replied, " that they did not come into her room, in 
order that she might repose." She replied, " I do 
not wish them to think that I neglect them." 

Upon Monday evening, the name of France was 
mentioned ; she said several words with a sort of 
exaltation ; then she was silent ; her feebleness 
was excessive. All retired early ; she took leave of 
her children with her accustomed words. " Grod 
bless you, my children." These accents are the 
last left in their memory. They left her without 
apprehension. 

Nevertheless Monsieur de Mussy began to be 
alarmed at her constantly decreasing strength, even 
after she had taken some nourishment and a little 
wine. At this moment, thoughtful and grateful to 
others as usual, the princess addressed a maid 
waiting upon her, " You have also need of strength 
as well as me ; drink this wine," and passed her 
the glass. 

She several times insisted that every one should 
retire. " I believe that I can sleep, sleep well," 



DTJCHESS OF OELEAXS. 139 

Kaid she, dwelling upon the words. They withdrew. 
As her friend retired behind the curtains of the bed 
and believed herself concealed, the princess called 
the physician to her and said, " Make her sit down, 
Monsieur Mussy ; I see her in the glass always 
about." 

Every quarter of an hour, potions and aliments 
were administered to strengthen her, and she never 
complained of being disturbed ; but each time, 
gently repeated, " I am going to sleep so well.'' 

The physician sought to feel her pulse. Aston- 
ished at so much care, she said, " You think me 
then very ill ?" Monsieur de Mussy, already dis- 
quieted, evaded the question and replied ; " And 
you, madame, how do you find yourself T' — " Not 
ill ; I have often felt thus ; I wish to repose." 

Monsieur de Mussy retired to the adjoining 
room and wrote notes of intelligence to Claremont 
and Twickenham. During this time the silence was 
profound — so profound, that a friend remaining near 
the door was trembling with presentiment. " It seems 
to me that it is very silent here," said she to Mon- 
sieur de Mussy. He entered the princess' chamber, 
cast a look at her, and raised his hands towards 
heaven. The passage from one life to another had 
been so sweet that the two women, remaining near 
her bed, with their eyes fixed upon her, had seen no 



140 MEMOTK or THE 

alteration in her features or change in her counte- 
nance ; her visage had only assumed a more lurid 
paleness. 

Her friends were still inclined to doubt it ; one 
held her for some time in her arms, while another 
went for the princess. What can be said of these 
moments ! 

They watched four days by these dear remains. 
Many came from France to look upon them once 
more ; they pressed into the chamber, praying and 
weeping over one who had so often given them wel- 
come. She seemed to them still to smile, and those 
who saw her can never forget the peaceful, almost 
infantine expression upon her countenance. " That 
ardent exile" was at last at rest. 

Upon Saturday, the 22d of May, she was borne 
from her dwelling, surrounded not by those come 
to pay her homage and respect, but by desolate 
friends. Sobs burst forth from every portion of that 
simple house in Kichmond, and all the route over 
which the sad cortege passed, was hung with 
French colors, the cottage windows were closed as a 
sign of mourning, and showed what sympathy she 
had inspired in those around her. 

Her remains were deposited at Weybridge, be- 
tween the young and charming princess whom 
Claremont still weeps, and the king whom our re- 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 141 

grets have at length taught us to know. Without 
the noble intervention of the bishop of the diocese, 
this provisional place would have been denied her, 
and her poor body would have found neither an 
asylum in her adopted country nor in the one from 
which she had been exiled. This sainted priest 
thought that not less ought to be done for an exiled 
princess than for a queen of France. She rests 
there, near her friends. 

If in these pages one thought, one word has 
wounded an opinion, or a person, let the blame fall 
upon the hand that wrote it ; and let not one bit- 
ter feeling arise towards one who ever wished to keep 
peace with all in her heart, and who, not under the 
impression of her approaching end, but in those 
years when an active life^ seemed still unfolding be- 
fore her, pardoned all who had oppressed her, and 
besought those whom she had injured to forgive and 
forget. 

If these eulogies bestowed upon the duchess of 
Orleans bear the impress of exaggeration, we will not 
try to defend them. We have painted her as she 
appears in our hearts. None can be judged but by 
his intentions. Thus we will not pretend to im- 
partiality, if in order to attain it, we must cease for 
a moment to love her. We only ask that the 
duchess of Orleans' own words may be read with 



■^■. 



142 MEMOIK OF THE 

all sincerity of mind, and if we mistake not, the 
testament, drawn bj herself, wUl justify what we 
have perhaps been able to say of the greatness of 
her soul and the infinite tenderness of her heart. 
God grant that tender thoughts of her may arise and 
rejoice her soul, in that harbor of peace, where all 
affection dwells, and from whence all suffering is 
banished. 



DUCHESS OF OELEAKS. L13 



WILL OF THE DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, 

I recommend my soul in dying to God, and implore 
his infinite mercy in the name of Jesus Christ, beseeching 
him to receive me in those eternal mansions, and reunite 
me with those for whom I have wept upon earth. 

I leave my maternal benedictions to my beloved sons, 
and pray God to guide them through life, to grant them 
prosperous days and accord them eternal felicity when they 
have nobly finished their destiny upon earth. To them, I 
address my last adieu, thanking them for the happiness 
they have cast over my existence. 

I pray the queen to accept the last expression of my 
respectful gratitude. I bid adieu to my mother, to whom 
I owe so much, to my brothers and sisters for whom I have 
always avowed a sincere afi'ection, to my maternal family 
whose affectionate hospitality lessened the bitterness of 
our exile, to my friends and servants, whose fidelity in 
misfortune inspired me with grateful attachment, and 
finally to France that I have loved so much, and where 
the happiest years of my life rolled away. 



144 MEMOIR OF TES 

I recommend my sons never to forget tliat the fear of 
G-od is the beginning of all wisdom, that it is a light in 
prosperity and a support in misfortune. May they remain 
faithful to the precepts of their childhood ; may they also 
remain faithful to their political faith. May they serve 
Him, whether by constancy, in adversity or exile, or by 
valor and devoted patriotism when events shall recall them 
to their country, that constitutional France may count 
upon them to defend her honor, greatness, and interests, 
and that she may find in them the wisdom of their grand- 
father and chivalric qualities of their father. They will 
always remember the political principles that have made the 
glory of their house, and that their grandfather served 
upon the throne, and that their father adopted with ardor. 
His last directions have been the rule of their education. 

In leaving the world, I recommend my sons to the 
queen. My beloved son, count de Paris, will be emanci- 
pated the moment my testament shall be enforced ; never- 
theless, I rely upon the moral influence of the queen and 
upon her respected authority to keep him near her ; I 
equally count upon her maternal solicitude in praying that 
she will accept the tutelage of my beloved son, the duke 
de Chartres. She will not find these duties too burden- 
some, for I ask my brothers to aid the queen in the admin- 
istration of their nephews' fortunes. I know the sentiments 
which animate them for the children of their deeply 
regretted brother, and I am sure that they will always 
testify a sincere affection for them. 

I recommend my sons to remain always united, the 
indissoluble union of two brothers being the condition of 
their strength and mutual happiness. I desire my eldest 
son, as soon as he shall be legally permitted, to take part 
in the counsel of the family charged with watching over 
the interests of his younger brother. 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 145 

I also desire that my faithful and tried friends who 
have surrounded my sons, and who were devoted friends 
of their father, not ceasing to manifest proofs of attach- 
ment in misfortune, should continue to remain near them. 

My express will is that my possessions, all that is due 
to me legally, and all that I have a right to dispose of, be 
equally divided between my two sons ; with this intention 
I divide as equally as possible between them the following 
objects I possess, leaving — 

, To the count de Paris : — My necklace, with four rows 
of pearl, which I hope he will some day bestow upon the 
countess de Paris , the six diamond pendants ; the red album 
containing the beautiful collection of aquarelles, by French 
artists, having belonged to the duke of Orleans ; all my 
furs and Scheffer's picture of the " Holy Women." 

To the duke de Chartres : — My set of pearls com- 
posed of brooches, pins, earrings, bracelet and diadem. 
This set came to me from my godmother, my aunt Ade- 
laide. My bracelet of rubies, willed to me by the queen 
of Belgium ; two ruby knots ; the sapphire ring and ruby 
ring ; my beautiful lapis-lazuli cup ; the Livre d'Heure, 
that his father had made ; the necessary ensigns and my 
laces. I hope that the jewels and laces will serve the 
duchess de Chartres. 

I leave hcsids these articles, some as souvenirs. To the 
count de Paris, the large portrait of his father by 
Ingres, the marble bust of his father by Jollet ; the 
large picture of the " Portes-de-Fer," by Dauzats; tlie 
little picture from the " Col de Teniah," by Phil- 
ippoteaux ; all the manuscripts, papers, letters, little 
note books of his father's, and his father's letters addressed 
to me. I know that he will always regard these papers as 
a precious treasure, and I think that he may some day 
dispose of them in such a way as to make the world ac- 
7 



146 MEMOIE OF THE 

quainted with one whom France lamented, though without 
having known all his merits. I leave to him the portraits 
of my two mothers ; the aquarelle of Winterhalter, repre- 
senting the queen with the two children of the duke de 
Nemours ; the portrait in oil of the duke de Chartres by 
Winterhalter ; the beautiful poignard made for the duke 
of Orleans by my sister-in-law, duchess of Wurtemburg ; 
two of the albums containing his father's designs ; the 
Psyche presented to me by the city of Paris upon the 
occasion of my marriage ; the equestrian statue of his father 
in bronze, upon a pedestal of white marble ; the great clock 
by Begnet, which struck the hour of his birth, with the 
mantel ornaments accompanying it ; the inlaid casket, con- 
taining his father's watch and several other souvenirs ; 
the case containing the seal, and vermilion knives that I 
always used ; half of the beautiful engravings from his 
father's portrait by Ingres ; the little aquarelle of the duke 
of Orleans upon horseback, after H. Vernet's ; one of my 
four beautiful fans ; my wedding fan, in open work, which 
has already served the queen ; my bracelet containing his 
father's portrait destined for his wife ; my sculptured 
prayer-desk containing his father's cast ; my papers, letters, 
little gift books which I left in England ; his father's sword 
which he wore upon the day of his death ; the palm that 
was given him by his division upon his return from the 
Portes-de-Fer. 

I leave as souvenirs io the duke de Chartres : — The 
equestrian portrait of the duke of Orleans, by De Dreux ; 
the small portrait of his father, by Ingres ; the large pic- 
ture from " the Col de Teniah," by H. Vernet ; the head 
of his father in marble, after the monument of Triquetti ; 
the aquarelle of the queen, by Winterhalter ; my portrait, 
by Henriquel Dupont ; my writing-table ornaments (vase, 
porte-plume, vermilion ecritoire) ; the miniature of his 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 14Y 

godmother ,• my small watcli ; my memorandum-book in 
shell and gold, ornamented with family portraits ; one of 
my beautifully painted fans ; the bracelet adorned with his 
portrait and that of his brother, destined for the duchess 
de Chartres ; the aquarelle, by Eugene Larny, represent- 
ing a review of the Chasseurs of Orleans at the Tuileries 
(1840) ; the large portrait of the count de Paris when a 
child, by Winterhalter ; two of the albums containing some 
designs by the duke of Orleans ; the other of the engrav- 
ings after the portrait of his father, by Ingres; the " Arc 
de triomphe de Dymilah," by Dauzats; my Alexandre 
organ ; my wedding casket of jewels in Boule ; a bronze 
equestrian statue of his father, witb two bronze vases be- 
longing to it, 

I designate upon a special list, the souvenirs which I 
pray my family and my friends to accept as last testimonies 
of affection, and I ask my sons to divide the remaining 
objects between them, such as albums, bronzes, books, 
furniture, and trinkets 

Having at heart the prosperity of our House, I will, in 
case of improbable yet possible misfortunes, that is to say 
the pre-decease of my two sons, without leaving direct 
heirs, that I shall become proprietor of a part of their 
possessions, that the goods I leave be divided between the 
princes of the House of Orleans, and at their decease, be- 
tween the princes their sons. . . . 

Whatever may be the place of exile in which my days 
terminate, and wherever be my tomb, I ask my sons, and 
in case of their decease, my heirs, to bear my ashes to 
France, when our family shall be restored there, and to 
deposit them in the mausoleum of Dreux, near my hus- 
band's tomb. 

I here terminate my last wishes, granting pardon to all 
those who have offended or afflicted me, and beseeching 



148 MEMOIK OF THE DUCHESS OF OELEAJSTS. 

those to wliom I may have given offence, no longer to re- 
tain the remembrance of it. 

My last word is for my beloved sons — a prayer and 
benediction. 

(Signed.) Hemnb, Duchesse d' Orleans. 

Eisenach, January 1, 1855. 



BIOGRAPHIC SOUVENIRS 

OF 

THE DUCHESS OF ORLEANS, 

miilx M^ml %dk\% 

COLLECTED BY G. IL DE SCHUBERT. 



I. 

THE WAY OF LIFE. 

"He is in the way of life that keepeth instruction," — 
Pieov. X : 17. 

The discipline, tliat leads and maintains tlie 
human lieart upon the way of life, is both internal 
and external. Internally, it awakens the con- 
science to its natural relations with God, the author 
of life and being ; it is the discipline of humility 
with the fear of God, that is the source of all wis- 
dom and good in us. Externally, it makes us feel 
the hand of God in the midst of the vicissitudes 
of our terrestrial life. 

The life of the noble woman, whose traits we 
here propose to describe, oifers, in all its parts, the 
action of this double education. The mental disci- 
pline, with the fear and love of God, was already 
germinating in her filial and devoted attachment to 



152 MEMOIE OF THE 

her motlier and governess ; she was early exercised 
in outward discipline by the painful severing of 
the dearest and firmest of ties. From this double 
education resulted the regular and ever progressive 
development of a life which has been blessed to so 
many souls. 

What infant was ever held in the arms of a 
mother with a more devoted love than the princess 
Helen de Mecklenburg ? She was within four days 
of her third birth-day when she lost her mother. 
January 20th, 1816, the anniversary of the young 
orphan's birth, became a day of mourning, not only 
to one house or one country, but to all the supe- 
rior minds with whom she had a tie of relationship. 
Caroline Louise, the daughter of a nobly endowed 
prince, Charles Augustus, grand duke of Saxe- 
Weimar, had been brought up at the fireside of the 
sciences and arts ; though her mind was highly cul- 
tivated, the religious teachings of Herder had im- 
planted a life far superior to science and human 
art. It was from elation with that life, that she 
changed the intellectual and animated circles of 
Weimar for the peaceful retreat of Ludwigslust, 
marrying Frederick Louis, grand duke of Mecklen- 
burg-Schwerin, whose loneliness she sought to relieve 
by the gift of a sympathetic heart. Upon the 11th 
of February, 1812, the bride experienced the joys of 



DUCHESS OF OELEANS. 153 

maternity, by the birth of the prince Albert, a child 
endowed with rare faculties ; then, two years after, 
by that of a lovely daughter, the princess Helen. 
Her soul then aspired to disengage itself from its 
terrestrial covering. The birth of a third child, 
who quickly passed from the cradle to the tomb, 
determined the crisis and put an end to her noble 
Hfe. 

The spirit of the mother had not fled ; it myste- 
riously lived again in the souls of her children. 
Several months after the death of the duchess, I 
arrived at Ludwigslust, in obedience to the last 
wish of the duchess, and saw the young orphans. 
^"I have elsewhere described my entrance into this 
new circle of activity, and the first impressions I 
received. I then chiefly spoke of the two young- 
children of that august house, of prince Albert and 
his sister Helen. The latter, already in her third 
year, struck me with her infantile originality. I do 
not mention this as an individual souvenir, for this 
impression has remained in the memory of all who 
attentively observed the child, whose third year had 
not yet revolved. Even in the midst of her 
childish hilarity, happy in feeling and enjoying, 
Helen's expression was always impressed with a 
gravity which gave an air of grandeur to her posi- 

* Third volume of Schubert's Autobiography. 



154 MEMOIR OF THE 

tions and movements; there was notMng studied ; 
it was the seal which, the mind impressed upon the 
body from its earliest awakening. 

A friend to whom I am devotedly attached, 
Madame de Both, who accompanied the duchess 
Caroline Louise, as the friend of her childhood in her 
departure from Weimar to Ludwigslust, who re- 
mained with her till her death, and has surrounded 
her children with a devoted maternal affection, 
writes to me with regard to the princess Helen : 

" From her earliest childhood, she had a nature 
peculiar to herself. One remarked something more 
than ordinary in her ; it was as if no person could 
mistake the rank to which her birth and destiny 
called her. She ardently loved study, listened with 
a serious attention to all that others said, and early 
exhibited a certain poetic tendency. In one word, 
she was in every respect remarkable, and I was often 
struck with her resemblance to her mother, except 
that the latter was more calm and reserved, while 
Helen's mind was more lively and frank." 

Helen loved above all things to hear those who 
knew her mother speak of her ; she was never 
weary of hearing the slightest details concerning 
her ; — ^what she had done and liked in her childhood, 
what she had said to Helen and Albert before her 
death, what had been her favorite places in the gar- 



DUCHESS OF OELEANS. 155 

dens and castle. She loved to find herself in the 
neighborhood of her mother's and young brother's 
tomb ; in short, the Eternal Country, for which the 
spirit of man was created, occupied the dreams of 
her childhood before it was trained for the study of 
the invisible world. It was by this discij)line that 
the mind of the young princess was early led upon 
the road which leads to hfe. The permanent serious 
impression of eternity initiated her soul into ideas 
of a superior world, and impressed that dignity upon 
her whole bearing, which so early struck strangers. 

I was in daily intercourse with prince Albert, 
and have often seen him with his sister Helen. 
Though I was not preceptor, in the strict sense of 
the word, I neglected no occasion of awakening first 
in the mind of the young prince, then in that of his 
sister when she joined us in the garden, the germs 
of knowledge, whose prompt action upon the mind 
has the same importance as the maternal milk upon 
the body of a child. Prince Albert, from preference, 
read and meditated with me upon Biblical histories, 
among which that of the prophet Daniel particularly 
interested him. Helen voluntarily remained with us 
and attentively listened. She frequently played 
with us in the midst of the flowers and listened to 
my stories and romantic narrations. The children 
also loved to hear me speak of subjects drawn from 



156 MEMOIR OF THE 

nature, trees, plants, stones, beautiful mountains; 
and, at tlie advanced age which I have reached, I 
still remember that the questions of those children, 
upon which their minds were revealed, more than 
once opened a new horizon to my view, upon the 
essence of things. It was not difficult for me to 
speak in language conformed to their age, for my 
soul was with their souls. 



DUCHESS OF OKLEANS. 157 



II. 

THE EOOT OF THE VESTE IN THE GAEDEJST. 

The fruit of the vine, more tlian that of any- 
other plant, possesses the virtue of strengthening and 
rejoicing the heart. Thus the vine is specially 
cited among the productions of the promised land, 
and the Holy Scripture frequently mentions the 
care and pains bestowed upon its culture, the pro- 
tecting walls with which, the cultivator surrounded 
it, and the vigilance with which he watched each 
particular vine. The vine and the stock are more 
than once employed in Biblical language as an 
image for the chosen people or members of that 
people. 

Among these, the force and action in the do- 
main of spiritual life may be compared to the effects 
the blade of wheat converted into bread produces 
upon animal life. This action is beneficial, but as 



158 MEMOIE OF THE 

it is daily, it is less felt than the stimulating effects 
of a medicinal or spirituous drink. Thus like the 
vine, minds which ought to exercise a profound and 
salutary effect upon a people and upon an epoch, 
ought to he the object of special care and culture. 
It is not in the midst of flowery couches, nor in the 
luxuriant verdure of meadows, that the root of the 
vine germinates and grows, but the gardener trans- 
plants it to the rocky soil of those isolated moun- 
tains, to which the canticle of the prophet applies : 
" We have a strong city; salvation wiU God ap- 
point for walls and bulwarks." 

Helen, endowed with rare faculties and called to 
a high destiny, had need to be guarded in order to 
become what she did. She had lost the aid of her 
mother ; her father, who tenderly cherished her, 
was too much absorbed by government affairs to 
superintend the great task of her education. The 
young orphan had doubtless a guardian angel near 
her, under the guise of the lady of honor, or rather 
that of the intimate friend of her mother, Mademoi- 
selle de Tann, who soon after married General de 
Both. Her attachment for the young Helen was 
beyond limit; it rendered her capable of all sacri- 
fices. Still later, when her cares became less 
pressing, this faithful friend did not allow a day to 
pass without going to see the state of the young 



DUCHESS OF OKLKANS. .50 

princess. She unremittingly sought to find traits 
in Helen resembling those of her mother, and when 
she marked a new one that recalled her, her heart 
thrilled with secret joj. 

The whole nature of the child announced the 
germ of an intellectual independence which passed 
all ordinary hounds. One who closely observed her 
in childhood might have said : there is in this young 
girl the germ of a character whose development no 
external force will retard, and which will direct her 
with a firm step to her high destiny. Helen then 
needed a method of education, such as Kastner 
himself recognized and experienced : 

" Als icli ein Knabe war, da trat ein Mann heran, 
Da sah ich ihn und streckte mich, und ward ein Mann" 

In obedience to the dying request of his wife the 
prince de Mecklenburg sought the princess Augusta 
of Hesse Hamburg in marriage. She wished to 
decline this reiterated request for her hand, but a 
powerful voice within, which she was in the habit 
of consulting, replied afiirmatively, and she sub- 
mitted. 

Thus had the young princess Helen a second 
mother, who exercised the most decisive influence 
upon her mental development and the direction of 
her entire life. A friend, who witnessed the results 



160 MEMOIR OF THE 

effected by the new ducLess in the household of hei 
husband and especially in the hearts of the chil- 
dren, thus writes : 

" Humanly spealdng, it is to the princess Au- 
gusta that the young duchess Helen owes her edu- 
cation, and I bless G-od that the world has been 
able to contemplate and appreciate in the duchess 
of Orleans, the fruits of the prayers and devotion of 
her second mother." 

In the spring of 1819, I left Mecklenburg in 
order to renew my scientific studies. The eldest of 
the princesses, who later, under the name of the 
duchess Maria of Altenburg, was generally beloved 
and respected, had terminated her education, and 
my principal task was thus achieved. Providence 
had watched over the youngest children of the grand 
duke, Albert and Helen ; beside the excellent gov- 
ernor of Brandenstein, prince Albert had a precep- 
tor who possessed with the most profound serious- 
ness a most affectionate disposition. The remem- 
brance of this worthy man, so soon entered into 
rest, still moistens my eyelids, and the affection I 
professed for him can never waver in my heart. It 
was the theological candidate, Koch, son of the ven- 
erable pastor of Bellahn, who, after the example of 
the priest and king of Salem, led a holy and solitary 
life in the midst of his generation ; extending his 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 161 

hand in prayer over a vast field in which his faith 
perceived the movement of the dry hones. (Eze- 
Idel 37.) 

The son had the fidelity and faith of his father ; 
I do not know that I ever saw a man like him, who 
loved with all his heart and soul, combining the 
gentleness of St. Paul with the vehement zeal of St. 
Peter. The interest with which Helen took part in 
the religious lessons which he gave to prince Albert, 
has surely been blessed. 

Besides the princess Augusta, who surrounded 
Helen with the protecting rampart of maternal 
love, the child was confided to the vigilant care of 
a Genevese, Mademoiselle Nancy Solomon, of whom 
I will speak in another chapter, several words gath- 
ered from the testimony of a faithful witness. 

The end proposed by Eternal Wisdom in. sus- 
taining this delicate plant upon all sides, was soon 
revealed, by the approach of as torm which, break- 
ing, proved the young vine even to the root. The 
noble grand duke, Frederick Louis, died upon the 
29 th of November, 1819, in the prime of life. By the 
side of his bed there were prayers and struggles that 
left a permanent impression upon the minds of the 
children. The letters which were then addressed to 
me, enable me to witness that tried family and to 
follow the prince to his last resting place. 



162 MEMOIE OF THE 

From my departure for Erlangen, I continually 
corresponded with, my friends at Ludwigslust. The 
children had also written to me ; j)i'i^ce Albert, 
dates from my departure from Mecklenburg in 
1819 ; and as early as 1822, the princess Helen, 
added to her brother's letter the following words 
traced with a sure and correct hand, rare for a 
child of eight years : " Dear Professor, as my 
brother writes to you, I wish to tell you that I love 
to think of you." 

I here quote several lines of the first letter 
properly so called, addressed to me by that dear 
child, at the age of nine years. It is dated, Lud- 
wigslust, April 18th, 1823. 

" Dear Professor ! How I envy Madame de 
Bechtolzheim, who will have the pleasure of seeing 
you, as well as your dear family. I hope that she 
will tell how we speak of you and the beautiful 
stories you related to us. Our dear Mr. Koch also 
knows some pretty tales ; he gives me lessons which 
give me great pleasure. Dream, I pray you, dear 
'pro.''^ that I have not a single syllable from your 
hand, and that a little letter would rejoice me very 

* Professor. Prince Albert, in his childhood, frequently 
employed this abbreviation, and his young sister imitated him. 
— Author's Note. 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 163 

much. Adieu, dear Professor, do not forget your 
Helen. My Nancy cordially salutes you.'' 

I granted this childish invitation with pleasure, 
and her correspondence has been to me, in the 
course of my life, a source of great delight. 



1G4 MEMOIK OF THE 



III. 

THE HAPPY INSPIRATION. 

An ancient clironicler, relating the exploits and 
life of the great emperor Frederick I., the Saxon, 
says, he always seized the right hand of every thing. 

These simple words are the best eulogy that 
could he bestowed upon the sentiments and actions 
of any man. The duchess of Orleans possessed 
this happy faculty from her childhood ; it was re- 
marked in her thoughts and actions. Let me here 
present the testimony of a loyal witness, who daily 
saw the princess during the period of her youthful 
development. " The grand duchess distinguished 
the most vigorous germ of independence in her 
daughter's nature. Helen was in her eyes a new 
and often enigmatical study, which attracted all 
her attention. That which most astonished and 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 165 

often disquieted lier mother, was the assurance and 
courage with which the young princess questioned, 
judged and decided, as if she had no need of reflec- 
tion. This spontaneity had also its charm ; it 
came to her as if by inspiration ; it was the fresh 
effusion of a young heart, and a touching kindness 
made itself felt in all her words, judgments and 
actions. 

" One would have thought that a certain pre- 
sumption must be dissembled under a character so 
independent and a nature so decided. But it was 
not so. She had a delicate conscience that made 
its voice heard. With the aid of this good genius, 
she raised herself above her own nature. She early 
learned the secret of self- education ; this secret 
consisted in being attentive, not to the remon- 
strances of men, but to the voice of conscience, 
which taught her her duty towards God and her 
neighbor. From her childhood she isolated herself 
to live with her secret thoughts, and revealed them 
oftener by her actions than by words. The more 
she felt the need of this inner life, the oftener she 
retired to her chamber, and when she withdrew from 
it one could read in her amiable, serious face, that 
she had been with the master and friend of her 
heart, that she had communed with God, and God 
with her." 



166 MEMOIR OF THE 

Thus she preserved the strength that was the 
joy and consolation of her heart. 

Dwelling upon the vicissitudes of the duchess 
of Orleans' outer life, it has often heen said that it 
was an unhappy one. Her mother, who knew her 
as well as herself, judged of it otherwise. " Helen," 
said she, " has never been long unhappy. She al- 
ways maintained her tranquillity in a manner that 
I do not myself understand. She has doubtless 
been deeply tried ; after the death of her husband, 
she seemed to have lost all happiness and inward 
peace ; for the duke was Helen's ideal as well as 
mine. For some time the sight of her children 
distressed her ; she seemed only to feel the loss she 
had met with ; but, arousing herself from this crisis, 
she found peace." 

When she was in the flower of her youth, her 
happy disposition often manifested itself in out- 
ward demonstrations of hilarity, but above all when 
in company with the friend of her childhood, the 
countess Ida de Bassewitz, in every respect a grace- 
ful and amiable young girl. In her society, Helen 
willingly played for hours with dolls and toys, or 
bounded through the gardens and apartments. 
But her taste for doUs soon gave place to more ele- 
vated objects of art. She decked her chamber with 
choice plaster figures. Upon the right and left of 



DUCHESS OF OKLEANS. 167 

her secretary were the figures of two children, one 
reading, the other writing. " How happy those 
children are ! " exclaimed she ; " they are never 
distracted, never rise, never turn their eyes from 
their work ; that I might read and write with 
such continued zeal." 



168 MEMOIK OF THE 



lY. 

FEIEDENSBURG. 

The moment arrived when, tlie young princess 
was enabled to follow her decided taste for tlie 
study of the sciences. The grand duchess, who 
foresaw the happy fruits that a more vigorous im- 
pulse would have upon the development of her 
daughter's character, energetically applied herself 
to the accomplishment of the purpose. 

Prince Albert, accompanied by the chamberlain 
of Brandenstein, and Koch, his faithful preceptor, 
had gone to pursue his studies at Zurich. 

The grand ducal chateau, was then sufficiently 
large for the grand duchess and the princess Helen, 
upon whom she now lavished an undivided mater- 
nal solicitude. It also could offer a suitable 
apartment for the instructor who had been appoint- 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 169 

ed to continue the education of Helen, then eleven 
years of age. Kennecke was predestined by God 
to this work, by a rare combination of intellectual 
and spiritual gifts. But the duchess decided upon 
a retreat where her activity might not be interrupted 
and where her daughter's powers might be devel- 
oped in solitude ; in the autumn of 1825, she left 
the sumptuous apartments she occupied in a wing of 
the castle, and went to live in the retired palace 
which, at a later period, became the resort of her 
widowhood. 

Then commenced a life, the original charm of 
which is described by a friend, in the following 
letter : — 

"The dignity of the grand duchess' manners 
and all her eminent qualities led us implicitly to 
follow all her wishes. But when we sought to read 
them in. her eyes, we soon realized that she had no 
other will than that of pleasing God, and contribut- 
ing all in her power to the faithful accomplishment 
of her duties as mother, towards Helen. Thus we 
were all engaged in the same work, each according 
to the respective position held, and strength 
possessed. The organization of the palace, soon 
resembled that of a Christian household, in which 
from morning till evening, at table and elsewhere, 
the watchword is, " Do every thing that you do, in 
8 



170 • MEMOIR OF THE 

the name of tlie Lord Jesus Christ and as in his 
sight." Among the persons, who strictly speaking 
composed this humble household, each one's employ- 
ment had some relation, more or less direct, with the 
work of the young princess Helen's education. Her 
preceptor Eennecke, commenced the day with read- 
ing the word of Grod, and then directed his intelli- 
gent pupil in the varied domains of human science. 
His teachings absorbed four or five hours daily, 
several other hours, beside, were employed in lessons 
with other masters and mistresses. At noon, the 
family dined together ; then the young duchess in 
recreation and walks passed several hours ; at eight 
o'clock in the evening, tea was taken in the garden 
under the shelter of an humble brick arbor, near the 
majestic poplar, or in the saloon of the palace. Two 
hours were passed in reading aloud and familiar 
converse ; afterwards each one retired to her cham- 
ber to enjoy peace of conscience and bodily repose ; 
sometimes however upon a starry night, the studious 
princess obliged her preceptor and several of her 
attendants to seek some other occupation than that 
of reading and conversing. She was not content 
with studying in her daily lessons of the empires of 
our terrestrial globe, she wished also to become ac- 
quainted with the principal stars and constellations 
as well as with the movements and laws of the 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. lYl 

solar system. This instruction had a great attrac- 
tion for her^ and in order to prove her gratitude to 
her master she designed an astronomical map upon 
blue paper, which she presented to him upon his 
birthday, adding that through him she had become 
acquainted with the celestial luminaries. She 
wished to express herself to greater advantage but 
could not continue." 

The grand duchess did not desire to make the 
eminent faculties of the jDiincess produce striking 
results, but to awaken her to perseverance, and love 
for application, and the acquirement of a taste for 
solid intellectual culture. This method entirely 
accorded with the character of the princess, who 
never wished to exhibit herself. Consequently, the 
most suitable mode of reading, seemed to be that of 
converting the hours for lessons into hours of work. 
Eennecke put this plan into execution with discern- 
ment and skill. Thus in the religious lessons under 
his direction, a Biblical book was read, he added 
the necessary explanations, then left the princess to 
note down for herself and to learn the passages that 
pleased her best, by heart. She naturally chose 
those which during the lesson, struck her as agreeing 
with the state of her soul. Thus her steps in 
Christian exjDcrience could be seen. Her progress 
was visible ; religious lessons were those which she 



172 MEMOIR OF THE 

preferred, because they introduced her into tlie king- 
dom of eternal truth. In short these lessons had 
not for an end simply dogmatic science, but an 
initiation into the true character of the kingdom of 
God upon the earth. The princess was never told 
that "she must believe such and such a point, but 
that it might be admitted with certitude, and that 
it was always good to allow oneself to be governed 
by the spirit of faith. 

All other lessons were in like manner made val- 
uable. In studying the history of a people, a suita- 
ble work was read" in connection with it. They 
designed a map to be filled little by httle, which 
was to contain an index of the principal facts of the 
history of the country and its inhabitants. Ren- 
necke and his scholar both drew their maps, and 
when the work was finished, it was not seldom that 
they made an exchange. In geographical lessons 
they also traced maps ; and, in order to facilitate 
repetition, notes were made upon the margin of the 
most remarkable places. All this was but play for 
a princess whose zeal and conscience seconded her 
talents. Her mother assisted at the morning les- 
sons, and took an active part in the afternoon 
instruction. Her spiritual observations debarred 
every thing trivial, and she frequently gave an un- 
expected interest to what had not fixed the princess' 



DUCHESS OF OELEAJJS. 173 

attention. She here unfolded all the simplicity 
and admirable resources of a discriminating judg- 
ment, which embraced without difficulty every thing 
within her sphere. 

She was not contented with being with her 
daughter in the study-rooms ; the promenades she 
often took with her in the forests and fields, be- 
came excellent means of study. She wished to 
share her exquisite delights in the beauties of Na- 
ture, whose depths she loved to sound. The natural 
sciences, in fact, were the favorite objects of the 
grand duchess' observation and meditation. The 
numerous writings of Dr. Gr. H, Schubert, former 
preceptor in that noble family, served as guides 
for that branch of science. They also made use of 
divers collections of natural history, and in the study 
of botany, of artificial plants of rare beauty. 

From the fields and forests, where the afternoons 
passed so quickly, let us return to the evenings. 
Before dwelling upon them, I will sketch the por- 
traits of some persons who passed some time with 
the grand duchess and her daughter. 

When one dwells upon the career of the future 
duchess of Orleans, it must be incontestably ad- 
mitted that Providence in a most special manner 
watched over her Christian education. 

By a remarkable coincidence, three persons 



174 MEMOIR OF THE 

maintaining diiferent views of religious worsTiip 
grouped around tlie princess. Her excellent gov- 
erness, Mademoiselle Nancy Solomon of Geneva, 
who afterwards became tlie wife of colonel Bon- 
tems, belonged to the reformed religion. Having 
her heart open to the ancient faith in all its regen- 
erating vigor, she inspired the respect of all who 
knew how to appreciate that serious Christianity 
which transfigures the whole man. Her black, 
piercing eyes were somewhat tempered by the ex- 
pression of her mouth, which I shall call sympa- 
thetic, and which chiefly struck one when her 
glance rested complacently upon the princess. 
From the age of two years, her pupil had been con- 
fided to her care ; French thus became as a second 
maternal language to the princess, and she contin- 
ued to make use of it in her conversations at Fried- 
ensburg. No person was more indifferent to all 
idea of personal merit than Mademoiselle Nancy 
Solomon ; she had a horror for every thing that 
might diminish the glory of God. She attributed 
the spiritual progress of the princess to God alone ; 
the grand duchess, playing upon her family name, 
was accustomed to say : " Nancy is a true daughter 
of Solomon," The mutual relations of both pupil 
and governess were most intimate and touching. 
By the side of the governess, belonging to the 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 1T5 

reformed persuasion, who watched over the princess, 
was Mademoiselle Gustarie de Sinclair, a Parisian 
by birth, and a zealous Catholic. She was maid of 
honor to the grand duchess and an intimate friend to 
Miss Solomon. Her good disposition and excellent 
qualities made her beloved, and the princess felt 
particularly attracted towards her. In general. 
Mademoiselle de Sinclair largely contributed to the 
life of the little society ; her cordiality and the in- 
genuousness of her observations rendered her com- 
pany very agreeable to the princess. Let us men- 
tion another lady, Catholic at heart, with the faith 
of a child — Madame de Both, whose tender care for 
the princess Helen has been already signalized. 

In face of these two influential elements, the 
princess' preceptor. Dr. Kennecke, represented the 
Lutheran persuasion. Scarcely could any other 
man so deeply feel the task of the education of so 
extraordinary a child, imposed upon him ; for he was 
animated by a spirit, whose flight is ever towards 
a height where the sun never sets. Let us follow 
him more closely in the work the Lord confided to 
him, for the good of many souls. 

Through his various relations with the Luther- 
ans of Silesia, particularly with Scheibel and Henri 
Steffens, he became a decided Lutheran. Despite 
his modesty and natural aversion to all religious 



170 MEMOIR OF THE 

pride, lie felt it his right to spread the Lutheran 
banner over his function as the preceptor of a 
princess of Mecklenburg. But his zeal never 
pressed beyond the limits imposed upon him in the 
circle, to which the Providence of God had called 
him. It was his privilege to choose and read aloud 
edifying works at those evening reunions. Indeed, 
no evening passed without the grand duchess re- 
questing the reading of an article that might 
strengthen her household in a living faith in the 
Son of God. Kennecke soon felt that the spirit of 
peace united all the members of that home circle. 
He endeavored to render the harmony always per- 
fect. 

They all wished to live, yet in such a manner as 
to be ever ready for the life eternal. Christ has 
sanctioned this view, by his precepts ; after those 
fundamental sources of our religious life, we have a 
stimulant in the example of that cloud of wit- 
nesses, whose lives have been glorified by being in- 
corporated with Christ. To seek and hear those 
faithful witnesses who have confessed the name of 
Christ in their holy words and actions, is a noble 
task for those who love the Lord Jesus, and wish to 
live with God, through Him. The entire circle of 
the grand duchess' family sought this nearness to 
Christ, and passed with common consent from one 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. ITT 

mountain to another, upon wliich rested the feet of 
the messengers of peace. 

That which they sought, they found in the 
principles and true representatives of the Catholic, 
Lutheran, and Keformed Eeligion, whose veracity 
could not be doubted. The Confessions of St. Au- 
gustine and other works chosen from the same au- 
thor, were the vestibule through which they entered 
into the three naves of the Church, separated from 
one another by some barriers. As faithful witness- 
es of the life of Christ in the Catholic Church, 
figured alternately with the messengers of other 
branches — Fenelon, Fr. Leop, Stolberg, Sailer, 
Fenneberg, and Monsieur Boos. Among the Lu- 
theran professors, they accepted above all, the testi- 
mony of Martin Luther, himself. They availed 
themselves of the book then widely spread through 
Ultsch, the Monument of the Reformed Church, 
which appeared for the jubilee of 1817. It com- 
prises passages chosen from all the works of Luther, . 
and arranged for all the work and fete days of the 
year. The book was also very convenient, because 
the dates limited the lesson. 

What concerned the Eeformed church, they 

found in the excellent little work, entitled the 

" Doctrine of Salvation," which is an extract from 

the ancient writings of the reformed theologians, 

8* 



1Y8 



MEMOIR OF THE 



mostly Frencli. Outside tlie principal articles of the 
Churcli of the Low Countries and of the Keformed 
Church of France, they also sought acquaintance 
with those men who have been the pillars of their 
churches, such as Calvin, Daniel Superville, whom 
the revocation of the edict of Nantes exiled into 
Holland, where he preached the gospel till his death; 
Jean Despagne, around whom the French refugees 
of London gathered in a body; Dallaeus, preceptor 
to the son of the celebrated Mornay; Mestrezat, 
whom cardinal Kichelieu called the boldest pastor 
of France; and Pictet, author of melodious sacred 
songs. Besides these authors made known by the 
extracts from their books, they studied still further, 
Ezekiel Spanheim, first professor at Geneva, then 
ambassador of Frederick II. of Prussia, to the court 
of England. In his celebrated Academic discourses 
he made frequent allusion to Thomas, whom he 
loved to cite as a powerful witness to the divinity 
of Christ and the reconciliation achieved by his 
death. Several works of the Anglican church 
had their place in their soirees; among others, the 
edifying letters of John Newton, and the secret of 
sanctification by Marshal. The Moravian commu- 
nity were represented by biographies and other 
writings addressed to the heart. 

We cannot here indicate all the elements of the 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 1T9 

evening subjects ; we only wisli to prove that God 
can unite what men separate, and what separates 
men. He who opens a heaven to all who found 
their hopes upon the death of his Son, alone can 
effect a celestial communion upon earth. 

The collections which have been sent to me upon 
the soirees of Friedensburg, contain a short lesson 
for the evening in which the princess Helen took a 
special delight, because the rules of spiritual life 
were concentrated under the form of questions and 
answers. Let me here introduce it. 

" From whence comes aU the evil in the world ? 
From the thoughts of the human heart. What 
does God regard in man ? The heart. What does 
God try in all its ways ? The heart. What is the 
greatest spiritual good ? Grace in the heart. 
What are we to watch most carefully ? The heart- 
How will God teach us his ways ? By putting his 
law in our hearts, ^hat is the greatest of God's 
chastisements ? Allowing the heart to become 
hardened^ Where does God reveal his love ? In 
our hearts, by faith. What is the effect of faith ? 
The peace of God in our hearts, which is above all 
understanding, and which keeps the heart in Jesus 
Christ. What hearts does God love ? He des- 
piseth not the humble and contrite heart. What 
must be purified ? The heart. What reward shall 
the pure in heart receive ? They shall see God." 



180 



MEMOIR or THE 



After having carefully designed the trunk and 
vigorous brandies of the tree of life, which was the 
object of study in these evening reunions, let us 
cast a coup d'ceil over its verdant foliage and fra- 
grant flowers. Mingled with, the grave or suppliant 
voices which formerly resounded through the temple 
one heard canticles and the sound of the timbrel 
and harp. In the visible world around us the sighs 
of the creature are also intermingled with accents 
of joy. Thus the grand duchess, whose solicitude 
extended over all, loved to introduce into the even- 
ing occupations, elements of another nature ; they 
were not direct rays of the eternal light, but they 
still reflected the animated wave of a fresh stream. 
They read, for example, innocent witty productions 
such as 'Wandshecher Bote.' They pleasantly 
occupied themselves with scientific works and travels 
when they were of an interesting and useful kind. 
The following letters which the princess Helen 
addressed to me, in her twelfth and fourteenth year, 
treat of these recreations : 



Summer of 1825. 



Deae Professoe, 

I cordially thank you for your pleasant book and 
the letter you were so good as to write to me ; both 
gave me great pleasure. 



nUCIIESS OF ORLEANS. 181 

How I pity poor Martelle/" wlio fell into the 
hands of the Turks, and was so cruelly treated by 
them ; but how I admire her great patience and 
energetic faith, which surely tempered her situation. • 

I much regret not having visited my dear pro- 
fessor (with Albert), who knew how to relate such 
beautiful stories to us, and not having traversed with 
him the beautiful environs of Erlangen : but I hope 
this delight is reserved for another occasion, 

I beg you very cordially to salute your dear wife 
as well as Selma and Adeline. Adieu, dear pro- 
fessor : save a little affection for your 

Helen. 

My Dear Peofessor, 

You are very good to think of me and to send 
me such a pleasant little book. I cannot sufficient- 
ly thank you for the great delight that you have 
procured for us all. We read it every evening, and 
we have now accompanied you to Lyons. The 
description of the diligence amused us much, but 
it is a great pity you should have been so disturbed 
in your antechamber, by such a disagreeable travel- 
ling companion. I also took a lively interest in the 
beautiful history of the two good little children, who 

* Allusion to a tale I published about this epoch at Erlangen. 



182 MEMOIR OF THE 

were saved in the Black Forest in sucTi a remark- 
able manner. 

Our Albert had a very great pleasure in seeing 
•you last summer, dear pro. He has spoken of it so 
much to me, that I wish very much that I had been 
of the party, though I do not know that I should 
have had as much courage as your dear wife. 

Next summer, if G-od permits, we shall make an 
excursion into Switzerland, to see our dear Albert. 
I was much rejoiced at the thought of seeing you 
again at Erlang^n, but that was not to be. God 
grant that we may have this pleasure another 
time. 

Mamma has probably already spoken to you of 
my preceptor, Monsieur Kennecke, who is extreme- 
ly good ; I like him much and also his lessons. He 
already Imows you, for we have often spoken of you, 
and he has a great desire to make your acquaint- 
ance. 

Shall I dare pray you, my dear and good pro, to 
embrace your dear wife and daughters, and to think 
sometimes of your affectionate 

Helem". 

Ludwigslust, May 26, 1827. 

I am going to add a few words upon a portion 
of Prince Albert's youth, not only to render some 



DUCHESS OF OKLEANS. 183 

passages of these two ingenuous letters clear, but 
also because wbat concerned the brother is in strict 
relation with, the horizon of the princess Helen, 

In the summer of 1825, he came to see me on 
his way to Erlangen, with his tutor, Monsieur de 
Brandenstein. I showed them the magnificent 
country and grottoes of Muggendorf ; then I accom- 
panied them to Nuremburg, to the house of my 
friend C. de Kaumer, where they also made the ac- 
quaintance of Kanke, my future son-in-law. From 
Nuremburg, the two travellers next went directly to 
Switzerland, the end of their journey and desires. 
Prince Albert sojourned a short time at Zurich in 
order to extend the sphere of his acquaintances and 
observations by the study of the sciences and con- 
templation of the sublime works of nature. 

At Erlangen, I charged them with salutations 
for my dear friend and brother David Spleiss, then 
professor at Schaffhouse, and also pastor at Buch. 
The acquaintance of this worthy servant of God 
was the first spiritual fruit that my dear prince 
Albert gained, upon setting his foot upon the soil 
of the great marvels of the Creator. He soon ar- 
rived at Zurich, the centre of Nature's magnificence. 
He was amicably welcomed in the house of Gressner, 
son-in-law to Lavater. The venerable Hess, then 
weighed down with years, received him with a 



184 MEMOIR OF THE 

paternal affection, and presented him witti one of 
his spiritual writings, entitled, " Yoyage to the 
Island of Hope," Dr. Hirzel, and Monsieur Jean 
Schlatter, became soon warm friends, of the newly 
arrived guests, who also frequented the houses of the 
negociates Wichelhausen and Lochner, where they 
were as one of the family, as in the dwelling of 
Gessner. 

In 1826, on my return from Italy, I made an 
engagement to meet prince Albert at Milan, where 
I found him in company with Monsieur de Branden- 
stein and his preceptor, Koch. I related in detail, 
in the last volume of my journey into the South of 
France, the excursion we made together to Brigue, 
in Valais, by Lake Majeur and the Simplon. Prince 
Albert described the course of his journey to me on 
his return to Zurich, in a letter of the 17th of 
October, 1826. 

In a later letter, of the 31st of October, 1827, 
he spoke freely of the happiness that a visit from 
his mother and sister Helen had given him. That 
interview in Switzerland, and above all at Zurich, 
was a source of mutual joy to the brother and 
sister, such as they had never experienced. In taking 
leave of them, the venerable Hess blessed and 
prayed for them , laying his trembling hand upon 
the head of the princess Helen and her brother, and 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 185 

I do not know but the words pronounced by that 
faithful pastor, remained graven upon their hearts. 

It seems appropriate that I should mention, that 
shortly after their joyful meeting at Zurich, they 
were called to a tomb to meditate upon their own 
end. It was first the prince's turn ; and -the expe- 
rience of his heart, is revealed in the last letter he 
wrote to me from Zurich, dated 13th of April, 1828. 

" Our travelling party has lost one of its mem- 
bers faithful Puis,* after an illness of fifteen days ; 
he died of tumor of the lungs . I need not tell you 
that his loss is deeply felt by me. The view of 
suffering, then that of the corpse, leave an inefface- 
able impression. When I saw him for the last time, 
he was seated ; his eyes were fixed, his countenance 
livid and distorted ; his sufferings had reached their 
height. When I saw the corpse, the impression 
was different. Suffering had disappeared, the mor- 
tal envelop was there under my eyes, but the mouth 
was closed for ever ; the soul had fled. Death ! 
said a voice in my heart. I saw him for the last 
time in his open coffin, with a bouquet of flowers 
upon his bosom and a smile about his mouth ; then 
I believed him at rest, and felt that he was happy, 

* The name of one of the prince's lojal servitors, who jour- 
neyed with us the preceding year to Milan. — Authors Note. 



186 • MEMOIE OF THE 

Ah. ! yeS; Grod will reunite us near his throne, where 
there is no more mourning, weeping or suffering ! 

I again place at the end of the chapter, a short 
poem written by the princess Helen, at the age of 
14 years, upon her return from her journey in Swit- 
zerland (1827). As its contents indicate, it was 
composed at Dobberan, upon the shores of the 
country, and in view of the sea that she came again 
to visit. 

Seyd mir gegrilsst ihr lachenden Hiigel 
Herrlich gekroiit mit grtlnendem Laub : 
Mild unweht von Zephyrs I'liigel 
Werdet ihr keines Sturmes Raub. 

Sey mir gegrilsst, o ruhiges Meer, 
Brandende Wogen am eisenam Strand, 
Spiegel dem nachtlichen Sternenheer, 
Sey mir gegrilsst mein Jugendland. 

Theure Bilder verflossener Freuden, 
Verschwunden sind sie nach kurzem Spiel, 
Moge der Schmerz vom irdischen Scheiden 
Wenden das Auge zum seligen Zeil. 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 187 



Y. 

AFFLICTION AND JOY. 

The deatli of a friend of tlie princess Helen's 
soon after, made a deeper impression upon lier heart 
than that which affected her brother. 

I have already mentioned the young and amia- 
ble countess Ida de Bassewitz. From her third 
year, she had been educated with Helen as a sister ; 
growing up together, the two friends had but one 
heart and one soul. Ida was somewhat older than 
the princess, and her tender affection for her adopt- 
ed sister led her voluntarily to place herself in the 
second rank. The slightest desire, the faintest wish 
that she could divine in Ida's look, became as a law 
to Helen's heart, which she immediately obeyed. 
One might say that the bond of affection between 
these two children resembled the perfect happiness 



188 MEMOIE OF THE 

of a conjugal union ; Helen's relations with Ida 
were those of a spouse who has no will but the will 
of her husband. They had, it is true, ceased to live 
near each other, because count de Bassewitz had 
returned Ida to her mother, but they made frequent 
visits and their friendship expanded itself in inti- 
mate correspondence. Several weeks after hei 
confirmation, Ida suddenly died upon the 6th of 
September,1829. The grief of the young princess was 
far greater than one would have expected from her 
age and the natural liveliness of her character; it 
was preparing her for another and heart-rending 
grief awaiting her, thirteen years later, the death of 
her husband. They could not dissuade her from 
taking a journey to the tomb of her friend ; the 
agitation of her soul produced the germ of a nervous 
fever which burst forth on her return and put her 
life in danger. The vigor of her youth arose above 
it ; she recovered, but notwithstanding the return 
of her habitual serenity, a serious tendency was 
remarked in her, which confirmed the truth of the 
French proverb ; " Sadness is in the heart ; gaiety 
in the mind." Still later, at the epoch of her life 
when she was smitten with the most overwhelming 
of blows, this tendency became habitual, though 
the cheerfulness of her mind mastered it. 

This trial, which joy and grief commingled, 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 189 

and eternity much occupied her thoughts, had a 
special bearing upon the princess at this time. 
The image of her friend was incessantly before her 
eyes ; but she did not attract it earthwards as 
formerly ; it seemed to her, she said, that her friend 
from the home of the blessed, was blessing her and 
filling her soul with the rays of an imperishable 
love. It was a solemn and serious moment to her, 
when on the 30th of May, 1830, she made the 
following profession of her faith, which she had 
written with her own hand, in the church at 
Ludwigslust. 

" After Grod, in his grace and mercy, has re- 
ceived me by baptism into the alliance of recon- 
ciliation through Jesus Christ, after he has made 
me acquainted with his Word, and through it, of 
my sin and corruption, after he has drawn my soul 
to Him by continual appeals and exhortations, I 
here publicly make a profession of the faith, which 
by the action of the Holy Spirit, has become the 
sure foundation of my temporal and eternal life, as 
well as of my hopes. 

"I believe in God the Father, creator of the 
heaven and the earth, who so loved the world that 
he gave his only Son, that all who believe in Him 
might not perish, but have everlasting life. He 
has thus had compassion upon me, pardoned my 



190 - MEMOIR OF THE 

sins as his child reconciled through, the merits of 
his Son. It is upon faith in the only Son of the 
Father, that I huild the salvation of my soul, and 
satisfy the justice of God ; for Jesus Christ, hy his 
humanity, his hitter sufferings and death, did for 
me what I cannot do for myself ; and by faith in 
his inexhaustible love and grace, renders mepar- 
ticipant of his salvation. After having opened to 
me the gate of heaven by His resurrection and as- 
cension, he intercedes for me with the celestial Fa- 
ther, so that I may not die in my sins, but that I 
may live. 

" I surrender myself entirely by faith in Him 
who has saved and redeemed me. Regarding 
each circumstance of my life as a dispensation of 
his love, I pray him, who is the chief object of my 
faith, to preserve me from all evil by His Holy 
Spirit, and to preserve me in close communion with 
Him, that I may pass my life constantly looking to 
Him, and that I may be found faithful. Amen ! " 

NoTK — Professor Schubert here mentions the princess' 
choice of the canticle, and introduces a poem by her, which will 
be found at the end of the volume. 



DUCHESS OF OKLEANS. 191 



YI. 

A NEW SCHOOL OF LIFE. 

The princess having attained the age of seven- 
teen (1831), Monsieur Kennecke, her faithful pre- 
ceptor and spiritual guide had finished his task in 
the ducal mansion ; he went to fill an ofi6.ce to 
which he had been called by an unforeseen direction 
and by the spontaneous wish of many friends. He 
first made a voyage into the South of Europe, 
passed by Munich, and came to see us with his 
companion, whose mind, like his heart, was assim- 
ilated to his own. His arrival was announced to 
me by a letter from princess Helen, who was equal- 
ly dear to us both : 

Dear Peofessoe : 

I have for a long time desired to write to you, 
to express the gratitude your interesting works 



192 MEMOm OF THE 

awakened in my heart. I have always been arrest- 
ed by the fear of robbing you of precious time, and 
I contented myself, while reading your writings, with 
sending you in thought, a cordial acknowledgment. 
But since a favorable occasion now presents itself, I 
joyfully make use of it, to recall myself to your re- 
membrance and to pray you kindly to accept a 
small gift, which I hazard sending you under the 
patronage of my mother, and which perhaps will 
recall our dear North Sea to you.* 

Our good Monsieur Eennecke, doubtless, will 
have arrived at Munich, and will have satisfied the 
desire he has for a long time cherished, of forming a 
nearer acquaintance with you. The reading of your 
books which 1 accomplished under his direction, and 
the frequent conversations of which you have been 
the subject, have been the commencement of liaison 
which he will now have the happiness of forming. 
I have an inexpressible desire to witness it, but 
must await his return, and now enjoy the anticipa- 
tion of all that he will have to tell us of the pro. 

Last year, in reading, "The Primitive World 
and the Fixed Stars," I was eager to study the 
heavens arid its planets ; I admired the incompre- 
hensible calculations of the learned, and thought of 

* It was an excellent design of a site from the shore, near 
Dobberan. 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 193 

you, in resorting to our old globe. This year, a new 
world, but an animated world, has been opened to 
my view, in your "History of the Soul," which I have 
found very attractive. Unhappily the departure of 
Monsieur Kennecke, did not allow me to finish the 
reading with him ; but I finished it with my dear 
mother, who has opened the eyes of my understand- 
ing to the obscure passages, and placed them upon my 
level, when my simple mind could not reach them. 

But now, dear Professor, it would be indiscreet 
for me to turn you longer from your important oc- 
cupations ; I then hasten to conclude, once more 
praying you to keep me in your remembrance. 

Helen. 

The departure of the worthy and active precep- 
tor of the princess did not arrest the development 
of her education, for she knew how to procure in 
instructive books what she felt the need of The 
inner school of the heart, in joy as well as in grief, 
remained what it had been ; the invisible precep- 
tor, under the superintendence and discipline of 
which she found herself, remained faithful to her. 
With these two means of the development of the 
soul and mind, was also associated the school of the 
world, developed by social relations, observations, 
experiences, sufferings, and heart trials. 
9 



194: MEMOIR OF THE 

At this periodj tlie hand of a friend will direct 
me and frequently accompany me through varied 
events, by which the princess Helen was prepared 
for her destiny. It is a friend, whose pious and lov- 
ing heart frequently sustained that of the princess, 
and whose spiritual life was in such harmony with 
that of Helen, that it was as a mirror. The lady of 
whom I speak, is the same who, in a well known 
house of mourning, has been a faithful spiritual 
support to broken hearts, and has witnessed the 
powerful consolations of the gospel, beside the dying 
bed of a loyal and sincere prince, whom the princess 
Helen loved and respected. Several passages in the 
course of this work, marked with a special sign, have 
been taken from letters addressed to that friend. 

Upon returning from her excursion in Switzer- 
land and a great part of Southern Germany, the 
duchess Helen, under her mother's faithful escort, 
yielded to the reiterated invitations to visit the new 
residence of her sister Maria, in beautiful Thurin- 
gia. One of these journeys she made in the course 
of 1831. She passed through Berlin, where duke 
Albert then was. The princess went to see, in his 
company, the master-pieces of the Eoyal Museum, 
which made a profound impression upon her young 
imagination. 

At Weimar, the family of the grand duke and 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 195 

the entire people loaded them with proofs of the 
faithful and deep affection which had transmitted 
itself from the defunct duchess Caroline, to her chil- 
dren, and above all, to Helen. She describes with 
transport, the circle of the reunited family at the 
house of her beloved sister Maria, in quiet, pleasant 
Eisenberg. She found in her sister's husband, duke 
George of Altenburg, whom she surnames, "the 
lever of all noble aspiration," a faithful brother, even 
till death ; her eyes and her heart rejoiced in the 
sight of the infantine caresses of the three young 
princes, pledges of that happy union. At Eudol- 
stadt, two sisters of the grand duchess welcomed 
the travellers with open arms. 

These family delights were soon disturbed by 
the terrible news that the cholera had invaded 
Helen's country. It was necessary to return with- 
out delay to Mecklenburg, if they would escape the 
ennui of a quarantine. The duchess Maria and the 
princess of Eudolstadt, besought the grand duchess 
to prolong her sojourn with them, until the scourge 
should rage with less vigor. But the young 
princess, seconded by her mother, represented with 
all the eloquence of her heart, that in such a time 
of distress, the faithful citizen ought to be in the 
place assigned in his country, where he would be 
under the sure guidance of God. It was then, 



196 MEMOIR OF THE 

"with, an unutterable joy," as she wrote, when 
towards the end of September, 1831, she again 
saw the soil of her native country. 

The fears that the cholera had inspired were not 
so soon dissipated ; nevertheless, she had the joy, in 
the summer of 1832, of finding herself surrounded 
by her own dear ones at Dobberan, which she 
called " the Eden of her childhood." In short, 
prince Albert, and the duchess Maria, with her 
husband and children, there took up their abode. 
The presence of several guests, not less distin- 
guished by intellectual gifts than by princely eclat, 
became a new source of delight to the young 
princess, then eighteen years of age. 

I here transcribe, almost at length, four letters 
written by her hand during this period of her de- 
velopment. They will serve to complete my obser- 
vations. 

Dear and honored Professor : 

Having written to you a short time since, I shall 
perhaps appear importunate, but it is impossible 
for me to allow a letter of mother's to be sent to 
your address, without obeying the impulse of my 
heart, or without expressing my profound gratitude 
for your goodness. A few days since, I received the 
little package which I opened with an ineffable joy, 



DUCHESS OF OKLEANS. 197 

because I recognized your handwriting, always 
dear and welcome ; my delight was still more aug- 
mented by the reading of your friendly letter, and 
by the sight of the instructive books which accom- 
panied it. My thanks, doubtless, arrive rather long 
after the departure of your gift, from having been 
delayed, by a journey into beautiful Saxony, to visit 
my dear sister and some relations, which prevented 
us from finding M. de Oettl at Dobberan. We saw 
him only a few moments at Altenbnrg, when he 
could not remit your gifts to mother, and promised 
to send them to Mecklenburg. During the short 
sojourn of the queen of Bavaria at Altenburg, I 
had the delight of hearing your name mentioned by 
prince Otto, with affection and respect ; I made his 
acquaintance with much more pleasure, from moth- 
er's having received your favorable opinion of him. 
I envy the prince the happiness of being at your 
side, and receiving lessons which you alone can give ! 
It would be indiscreet longer to abuse your 
patience by my wearisome words ; I confine myself 
to entreating that you will sometimes think, in 
your prayers, of your Helen, who reveres you and is 
entirely devoted to you. 
EisENBERG, August 18, 1831. 

The second letter expresses the tendencies of 
the princess in the first months of the year 1832 : 



198 MEMOm OF THE 

Much honored Professor : 

I would not permit myself to trouble you in your 
occupations, if your goodness, already tested, was 
not a guarantee of your indulgence. To express to 
you my sincere gratitude is a necessity of my heart, 
for I experienced ineffable joy in receiving your beau- 
tiful letter, and your very interesting little book. My 
insignificant work did not merit tbe welcome whicb 
5^ou gave it ; it will be a happiness to have it some- 
times used by you, not the least, in having provoked 
such an excellent letter, in which you happUy hold 
up the swan, as the symbol of the spirit of life. 

You mention in your letter the great triangle of 
the stars in the heavens, in which you see the 
image of the Trinity in unity. I was greatly 
delighted, for this thought had previously struck me 
when reading it in your ' History of the Soul ; ' I 
love, on starry nights, to discover this great symbol, 
in the midst of other luminous worlds. 

The biography of the venerable Oberlin has 
greatly interested me ; I have read it with great 
pleasure ; and in order that you may know, dear 
professor, that we occupy ourselves with your writ- 
ings, I will again tell you, that to procure innocent 
pleasure we follow you in your journey in Italy, that 
with you, we admire that magnificent country, and 
the heroism of your dear wife. We are now at 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 199 

Grenoa, where I listen with great interest to what 
you have to say of the productions of ancient art ; 
after your suggestion, I hastened to read the sequel 
which promised still more instruction upon that 
subject. 

My dear Monsieur Kennecke, who has given an 
account of his sojourn with you, has apprised me 
that the princess Matilda takes lessons of you. I 
will sincerely avow that envy glided into my heart 
upon learning it ; for, since M. Kennecke is estab- 
lished at Dargun, I am reduced to the means which 
he left me for continuing my studies ; the spirit 
which gives life, absolutely fails me ; hence, would 
I love to share the happiness of one who finds 
occasion for development in the domain of science. 
Oh ! that I might from time to time be present at 
your instructions ! 

My letter may become too long, and I should be 
injudicious if I further tested your patience. I 
then hasten to conclude, presenting the compli- 
ments of my Nancy, whom you have doubtless not 
forgotten, and praying you, dear professor, sometimes 
to think of your devoted 

Helen. 

LuDwiGSLusT, Feb. 13, 1832. 
The third letter, written the same year as the 



200 MEMOIR OF THE 

preceding one, has a special importance in tlie sliort 
series of letters of this period, which reveal the 
spiritual progress of a heart subjected to discipline. 

DOBBERAN, Aug. 12, 1832. 

Dear and honoeed Peofbssor, 

Behold yourself again forced to read a few words 
of lively gratitude, written by a well-known young 
hand, which counts anew upon your entire in- 
dulgence and patience. Your friendly lines and 
pages, of which the contents are so interesting, were 
remitted to me by your friend the ecclesiastical 
counsellor Oettl, a man who awakens the confidence 
of the heart, and the most profound respect ; the 
affection which he bears towards you, was from the 
first instant, his best recommendation. Accept my 
heartfelt thanks f3r the remembrance of which your 
letter has assured me. The persuasion of not being 
entirely out of your memory and your thoughts, is 
very sweet to me. I will even say that it strength- 
ens the mind and the heart ; and ought to exercise 
a happy influence upon the life. 

Prince Otto has often interested me, in speaking 
of you and the lessons which you have given him. 
He appears to be an amiable young man ; I find that 
he already awakens interest by his career and by a 
certain naivete, which, with him, is so attractive. 



DUCHESS OF OKLEAJSrS. 201 

Though I have wished it, I have never succeeded 
in efforts to converse with him upon the most 
serious subjects ; nevertheless, I am convinced that 
they would have more charm for him than the 
fugitive questions of this life. But what obstacles 
in the~ accompKshment of our wishes ! bow often, 
useless verbiage takes the place of worthy conversa- 
tion. 

Until this time God has protected our happy 
family reunion ; but now we must all flee from this 
smiling Dobberan, from this beloved sea, for these 
shores are infested by the miasma of the cholera. 
The moment of separation is at hand ; every one 
follows the example of the noble and gracious 
queen.* She departs with all her court, but leaves 
a durable remembrance in the hearts of all who have 
known her. The same is the case with the dear 
Bavarians who accompany her. They have all 
gained my heart by their amiable and cordial man- 
ners. Oh ! if all the inhabitants of Bavaria resem- 
ble them, it must be a magnificent and delightful 
country. 

Dear professor, pardon I pray you my habillage ; 
for this separation afldicts me much ! I would also 
go to Munich, and hear once more from your' lips 
those beautiful words which come written to me. 

* Queen Theresa of Bavaria, sister of the duke of Altenburg. 
9* 



202 MEMOIR OF THE 

Do not think ill of my praying you to accept 
amicably a little souvenir, which. I hope you will 
find use for. 

HELElif. 

The fourth letter from the princess, was written 
shortly after an event which exercised a decisive in- 
fluence upon her life. The experiences and adven- 
tures of her sojourn at Dobheran, during the 
preceding summer, still form a portion of the 
subject of this letter. 

LuDwiGSLUST, April 26, 1833. 

Dear Peofessor, 

To-day it is impossible for me to resist the desire 
I have long had to write to you. The date of this day 
will be my excuse, if I rob you of a moment of your 
very precious time. It is a day very dear to the 
hearts of all those to whom you have done so much 
good, by your words and writings, in awakening in 
their souls a voice which is not of the earth, but 
which is an echo of heaven. Such a day authorizes 
me in congratulating all those who, like me, know 
and revere you, and in expressing my most ardent 
wishes for the year you are about to commence. 

My gratitude for the ineffable benefits that you 
alone are able to produce by your writings, would 



DUCHESS OF OKLEANS. 203 

express itself otherwise tlian by a dead letter, tlie 
feebleness of wbicb I deeply feel, wben, my eyes 
pause upon tbat dear little blue book,* wbich. speaks 
so eloquently to the soul, and breathes a spirit which 
you alone could animate. It is also that spirit 
which forms the bond of our circle this evening as 
we are engaged upon your beautiful work ; it sheds 
a peace over us which renders the remembrance of 
you still more dear. There are always some real 
transports of joy, when there comes to us a new 
jet from that abundant fountain; each one of us 
there seeks with avidity for acquaintance with the 
truth, and becomes strengthened by it. But this 
is also the only consolation for so long a separation, 
which seems to me like an eternity ; for, since your 
departure from Mecklenburg, a whole existence for 
me has roUed by, in which I have little by little set 
aside the dreams of childhood, in order finally to 
grasp the true signification of life. Sometimes still, 
I renew my taste for childish fables, in which repose 
the undeveloped germ of life. It is several years, 
for example, since, in that old city of Nuremburg, I 
found myself under the mysterious arches of the 
St. Lawrence church, where the stained glass broke 

* Allusion is here made to my "Communications upon the 
times of the Empire," to be found in my work entitled, 
" Ancient and Modern." — Author's Note. 



204 MEMOIR OF THE 

the rays of the setting sun ; since at St. Sebald, the 
majestic sounds of the organ filled the nave, and 
identified the past with the present ; how gravely 
the four apostles of the ancient castle looked down 
upon me ; how the entire city, symbol of ancient 
probity, awakened before me at the sound of the 
bell, and how the fields exhaled their evening per- 
fume, when I seemed to hear from all sides en- 
chanting voices, and lived again in the region of 
childish dreams. And you, who awakened those 
beautiful visions in my imagination, and who em- 
bellished them with your tales, you were not there; 
your absence was so sensible to all, that if I had had 
any power of the magician in my nature I would have 
made you come from Chemintz. I then thought 
much of your beloved daughters. I knew that they 
lived in the same country, but unhappily I was 
ignorant of the place of their sojourn. Do me the 
kindness to transmit to them my friendly salutations. 
I was rejoiced to find their names in the little blue 
book. 

The long period of time which has rolled away 
since your last letter, has abounded in political 
events and in intellectual progress for our nation. 
Bavaria and Grreece have, in a manner, commingled 
their history ; all hearts have palpitated with en- 
thusiasm and sympathy. A lively interest accom- 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 205 

panies the heroic expedition into the beautiful 
country of the Hellenes, whose soil it must be de- 
lightful to tread ; this unfortunate region will surely 
bloom again under the protection of a wise govern- 
ment, and will find in obedience to the laws, the 
true liberty which it vainly sought in anarchy. 
The touching and solemn reception which it has 
given to its king, may justify the liveliest hopes. 
This young king ought to be happy in thus know- 
ing himself to be surrounded by so many prayers 
raised to God for him, for his happiness, and for 
that of his people. You, also, dear professor, you 
surely have not without emotion seen your pupil 
borne away to fill such weighty engagements ; his 
departure must have deeply affected the heart of 
his excellent preceptor, M. de Oettl. 

Shall I dare pray you to recall me to his re- 
membrance ? My interviews with him the past 
summer have been faithfully retained in my memo- 
ry. Your goodness has so often crowned my wishes, 
that I dare address you still another prayer ; if 
your thoughts some day flow toward Ludwigslust, 
recommend me some reading which you judge in- 
structive in every respect. The present moment 
must offer many interesting publications, and yet 
it is rare that they reach our northern regions. 
Many hearts here beat for animating, intellectual 



206 MEMOIR OF THE 

productions, and ardently desire an unadulterated 
source. 

I must at last cease to chatter ; I close, recom- 
mending myself with all my heart to your remem- 
brance and prayers. 

I remain, dear professor, with the highest con- 
sideration, your grateful 

Helen. 

P. S. — My Nancy and all your friends here 
present their affectionate regards. My brother, this 
summer, will visit the rectoiy of Gastein, and will 
surely not go thither without seeing you. I should 
be jealous if I loved him less. 



DUCJaESS OF ORLEANS. 207 



YII. 

LIGHTS AND SHADOWS. 

Among all the friends and relations at Frie- 
densburg, none dared hope for the restoration of 
the grand duchess, who had reached the crisis of a 
malady, which threatened her life. The skill of 
physicians seemed of no further use than to deter- 
mine, with apparent j)recision^ the number of hours 
her sufferings would continue ; friends of both sexes 
who approached the dying bed, had no further need 
of controlling their emotion, for the invalid neither 
saw nor heard any thing. Among all the persons 
who visited the grand duchess, Helen only, then 
nineteen years of age, clung hopefully to her 
mother, in whom was wrapped up the happiness of 
her life. No discouragement nor hopeless grief 
was revealed in her countenance, which reflected 
only the serenity of a soul in constant communion 



208 MEMOIK OF THE 

with Grod. She had the full assurance that God 
would not take her cherished mother from her. 
Calm and self-possessed, she watched night and 
day according to her strength. Her hopes were not 
disappointed ; the grand duchess was restored to 
her kindred. 

The danger passed, the young princess, whose 
faith alone had sustained her, then realized the se- 
verity of the blow which had threatened to fall 
upon her. She thus expresses herself in a letter 
dated from the baths at Toeplitz, addressed to her 
intimate friend. 

" He who graciously received me, gave me the 
courage of a child, that is to say, blind courage^ 
and now raises the veil which he had himself drawn 
over my eyes. Now all lives again, within and 
without me ; my mountains, my dear and beauti- 
ful mountains, awaken within me a song of mirth. 
They also infinitely rejoice my dear mother, who 
to-day has already rode out twice. She is happy 
in being convalescent, and finds a new charm in 
every object ; she scarcely remembers her illness 
and sufferings, everything appears to her smiling 
and serene." 

Frederick William, according to his custom, 
passed several weeks at Toeplitz, in the summer of 
1833. The princess Helen already interested him, 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 209 

because of her possession of qualities rarely united ; 
goodness of heart, high intellectual culture, amia- 
ble simplicity, and serious modest mien ; but she 
was besides, the sister-in-law of his daughter, wife 
of the young grand duke Paul Frederic, of Meck- 
lenburg-Schwerin. He often went to see her, and 
was forcibly struck with the exquisite tact with 
which she received and entertained him, which was 
always directed by the judiciousness of her mind, 
and perfectly accorded with the faculties of her soul. 
This impression was not a fleeting one, it was still 
living in the affectionate heart of the noble king, 
when his counsels, at a later period, directed the 
choice of the duke of Orleans towards the princess 
Helen of Mecklenburg, 

From Toeplitz the two princesses went to Dres- 
den, where they passed several days. In that beau- 
tiful city, art and nature simultaneously impressed 
the princess's mind, but the works of art chiefly trans- 
ported her imagination. Her taste and judgment 
were so fine^ that she soon recognized what was 
truly worthy of admiration, and distinguished them 
from those which excite the delight and astonish- 
ment of the curious multitude. " In art, as in life, 
there is an eternal truth under the outward form," 
wrote she to her young friend. " It is truth which 
touches the heart, at the first coup d'ceil cast iipon 



210 MEMOIR OF THE 

a work of art ; tlie form is only a vestment, which, 
some exterior motives modify. But false enthusiasm 
is passionate for the form, which it changes, and 
takes for the truth." 

After passing the winter at Jena, in the imme- 
diate neighborhood of the celebrated doctor and 
intimate counsellor, Starke, the grand duchess Au- 
gusta returned to one of the hath establishments 
in Hungary. With her return of strength, she ex- 
perienced the reawakening of her intellectual life, 
which naturally sought aquaintance with all that is 
worth knowing. She soon formed around her, a 
choice circle of savants and professors of the Uni- 
versity of Jena, and under their direction set about 
sounding all the depths of science. After her ex- 
ample, the mobile mind of the princess Helen, 
easily bent to the task of gathering varied informa- 
tion. These intellectual labors afforded the princess 
ineffable happiness. " Our life," wrote she to her 
friend, "is at once calm and agitated, outwardly 
uniform, but inwardly rich in delights. The pro- 
fessors are very communicative ; it is a delightful 
life, which to me has an infinite attraction," 

The charm of a sojourn in that city devoted to 
the worship of the muses, was augmented in the 
eyes of the princess by the neighborhood of Eisen- 
berg, which often permitted her to see her sister. 



DUCHESS OF OKLEANS. 211 

and by the still greater nearness of Weimarj the 
residence of her mother's relations. 

" Surrounded by souvenirs of my mother's life," 
wrote she, " I passed delicious days in the circle of 
my kindred. I also became acquainted with many 
good and interesting things in that ancient German 
Athens." 

Thus terminated the year 1833, during which 
the young princess had much enjoyment ; she also 
commences the year 1834 with a grateful remem- 
brance, 

" I am always astonished," writes she to her 
friend at the end of that year, " I am astonished at 
the joys God grants me, as if he would console me 
for the past and future. His paternal love power- 
fully attracts me towards Him ; how can I but offer 
Him my life, a sacrifice for merciful acts. Since 
the re-establishment of my mother's health, this 
year has been happy in every respect. Provided 
only, that joy be not without consistence, and flees 
not like- the shades of evening, leaving no trace. In 
that case, I should desire affliction to estabKsh my 
heart and mind. For what are the delights of this 
world, if they do not elevate the soul toward heaven, 
the j)rimary source of all felicity ? " 

This desire for a call which should elevate her 
heart to God, even though it might be through 



212 MEMOIK OF THE 

tears, was only too soon satisfied, in 1834. Prince 
Albert, upon whose future his sister and mother 
founded their dearest terrestrial hopes, in a grand 
military parade had a fall from his horse, which 
subsequently caused violent headaches ; this ten- 
dency, I am told, was again aggravated by another 
fall from the top of a high wall of the castle of 
Cobeda, near Jena. When he made me a second 
visit, at Munich, in 1833, upon his return from the 
baths of Gastein, I found him very different from 
what he had been in 1828. In his interviews with 
his friends, though he had ever the same vivacity 
of mind, his gayety had given place to a sombre 
mood, which often painted itself upon the features 
of his countenance, even in the midst of animated 
conversation. " If you knew," said he to my wife, 
" what continual jjain I have in my head, you would 
comprehend the morbid silence which I continually 
keep with friends." 

This disposition did not entirely proceed from 
his physical suffering ; it also had its source in a 
profound agitation of the soul, which he described 
to me in a letter dated from Gastein, from whence 
he expressed his intention of coming to see me. 

"WiLDBALD- Gastein, January 23, 1833. 

My beloved Master : 

Upon my departure from Berlin, I received. 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 213 

from my motlier the good news that you would per- 
mit me to visit you upon my return, and to pass 
several days with you as formerly. I cannot ex- 
press the great joy I experienced at the thought of 
seeing you again, and of telling you that after the 
lapse of so many years and divers events, I have the 
same filial and cordial affection for you that I had 
in my childhood. I am very impatient to see you, 
to open my heart to you, and to ask your counsels 
and benediction. 

Since we have met, some very trying days have 
passed over me ; my soul has been in great danger 
of shipwreck, because the evil germs of my nature 
commenced to take root. But in the midst of these 
storms, I have always heard a voice unceasingly ex- 
horting me, which seemed to be a cherished echo of 
my boyhood ; then came that indefinable malaise, 
which reminded me that I ought to set at liberty a 
noble slave enchained in my heart. In the midst of 
the insipid life of the world or upon the sick couch, 
the Spirit moved within me, and I finally experi- 
enced a profound disgust for all that is mere noth- 
ingness. God has granted me strength to master 
my passions, and with a good conscience, has re- 
turned the delight in life, which I had lost. To say 
all this to you verbally, dear professor, and to hear 
again from your lips the old language of the heart. 



214 MEMOIE OF THE 

is a permission for which I cannot sufficiently thank 
you, for it is already a welcome halm to my soul. 

In leaving Grastein, I leave a place in which I 
have finally found the happiness which had for a 
long time fled from me. The remembrance of Ber- 
lin is painful to me. 

I was happy then, in leaving for the dear coun- 
tries of the South. I felt another spirit within me ; 
I was calm, serious, joyful. I could again observe with 
attention, and collect and arrange my impressions 
so as to render them profitable. I first proceeded 
to Dresden, where I tarried long enough to visit the 
gallery leisurely and to traverse Saxon-Switzerland. 
From there, I went by Tceplitz to Prague, that an- 
cient city with its tombs of saints and kings, 
archives of the history of Bohemia and Germany, 
more instructive than all the scribbling of our 
modern protoculs. At Linz, I again saw the snowy 
Alps, to which my eyes had not for a long time been 
habituated. I crossed the lake to visit Ischl ; then, 
down lake St. Wolfgang to Salzburg, which is a 
charming city. There, I thought much of you and 
my dear Oettl. I visited the Kcenigsee ; I clambered 
over the Watzman glaciers, and after having cleared 
the passages at the Lueg and Klamm, found my- 
self here. I have been living here tranquilly nearly 
a month, 3,000 feet above the sea and even in the 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 215 

bosom of tlie lofty Alps. "When leaping over the 
rocky abysses, when contem|)latmg the play of the 
sunlight upon the snow, what a world of plants I 
see living around me where the silence is alone in- 
terrupted by the uniform noise of a cascade, which 
comes to my ear like the pulsation of the life of 
Nature ; then as I recoil within myself, all the dear, 
good thoughts of my childhood awaken a slight 
feeling of pain ; my joy changes itself into a mute 
prayer, and I renew my engagement to remain faith- 
ful to the God of my youth and manhood. I live 
here in company with persons dear to me, and with 
whom I am at ease. We have here the arch-duke 
John and his wife ; this noble prince is the image 
of a German of the old stamp. When questioned 
at hazard, he has a reply for every one ; in the 
Tyrol, he is acquainted with each valley, and village, 
and with most of the families in the mansions and 
cottages. His noble face, a la Hapsburg, bears the 
impress of perfect goodness. With all this, he 
dresses like a peasant, and, in all his manners, is 
simple, thoughtful, and amiable. 

Without being able to fix the day, I shall leave 
Gastein in the beginning of August^ and think I 
shall proceed directly to Munich, passing through 
Innspruck. Since I know it will give you pleasure, 
I shall seek your hospitality without ceremony. I 



216 MEMOIR OF THE 

thrill witli joy at the thought of seeing you again 
with the aifection of former times, and of present- 
ing myself to you, not as a stranger, but as a de- 
voted, thoughtful son. 

How delighted I shall be to see all my dear 
friends in Munich ! In the meanwhile very cordially 
salute your dear wife, my good Oettl, and Dr. E. 

Once more, dear professor, I thank you from 
the depths of my heart for your permission, and I 
wait for the moment in which I shall be able to 
say so, directly, with impatience. 

Your affectionate, constant, and respectful pupil, 
Albert, duke of Mecklenburg. 

Upon the prince's return into his country, the 
pain in his head increased in an alarming manner. 
As the physicians presumed, and as the autopsy 
later verified, a tumor pressing upon the brain often 
occasioned convulsions, followed by violent pain. 
A sojourn at Franzensbad, in the spring of 1834, 
had produced no good effect ; the dying prince was 
brought to Ludwigslust. His sufferings assumed a 
character which lacerated the hearts of all who 
witnessed them. Notwithstanding the sinking of 
his body, his mind was always collected, and un- 
folded itself in touching expressions of love and 
serious self-abnegation. Finally, upon the 18th of 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 2lT 

October, 1854, that painful contest ended ; they 
laid the corpse of this young prince, which seemed 
to sleep sweetly after the fatigues of a laborious 
journey, beside his parents. 

Whoever saw the princess Helen during the 
period when his mortal sufferings diminished all 
chance of life, could scarcely recognize a trace of her 
natural gaiety of mind. She was not altogether 
overwhelmed. 

" The trials of life contain the germ of my 
eternal happiness," wrote she to her friend, after the 
death of her brother. 

She then delivered herself with still more ardor 
to the task of "strengthening and purifying the 
bonds which united her to those who remained upon 
the earth." Upon her part there were only words 
of love and acts of devotion, first for her kindred, 
then for all those who interested her and had need 
of her. She knew, in the Christian sense of the 
word, that that only was profound mourning. Then, 
and still more at a later period, sensibility to her 
own griefs awakened within her a delicate sympathy 
for the griefs of others, and a power of consoling, the 
magnetic virtue of which the afflicted experienced. 
This was her principal occupation during the first 
portion of the winter of 1834. 

She wrote me from Ludwigslust, upon the, 14th 
10 



218 MEMOIR OF THE 

of January, 1834, the following letter, whicli is the 
expression of tlie tendency of her soul at this 
epoch : 

Dear Peofessoe, 

You loved him with us, you wept for him with 
us, and you rejoice with him in the eternal felicity 
accorded to his soul, as indemnity for all the suffer- 
ings of a short, but agitated life ; you rejoice with 
him in that celestial peace which his impatient 
desires sought for, upon earth, and of which his 
faith gave him happy presentiments. In the midst 
of indescribahle sufferings, a soul like his could only 
be led to patience and docility by the power of 
God; in the touching outpourings of the last period 
of his life, the powerful succor of the Most High 
was manifested in a most consoling manner, render- 
ing him so calm and thoughtful, and preparing him 
for the contemplation of the eternal light, by a filial 
submission to the will of God. The happy convic- 
tion that he is now in possession of an incorruptible 
inheritance, was a solace at the hour of his death 
to our afflicted hearts, and it remains a possession 
which neither the poignancy of doubt, nor the pain 
of a now isolated life, can ravish; the firm persuasion 
that he is happy and that we shall rejoin him, will 
accompany us through the rest of our career, and 



DUCHESS OF OELEANS. 219 

will direct our eyes towards heaven like the finger of 
an angel ; it will be the sure pledge of our eternity 
and the sacred bond which unites him to our world 
of sorrow. 

In the midst of the most agonizing grief, man 
feels that such hours in life, are hours of purification; 
he learns to kiss the hand that smites, whose 
powerful aid alone can save him from despair. 
You recall the divine consolations, in such a touch- 
ing manner, in your letter, dear professor ; permit me 
to express how profoundly grateful I am for all that 
you have done for us. Alas ! dare the sister form 
an adieu for you, in behalf of the brother so sensible 
to the affection you manifested for him during his 
life, so happy in the benedictions which he owed 
to your prayers and his veneration for yourself.? 

But no, eternal recompense is found in the 
afiection and intercession itself ; you aspire to no 
other reward than the answer to your prayers. 

I dare not speak of myself, for I blush to com- 
plain, knowing that my brother is in the mansions 
of eternal happiness ; I am nevertheless too weak to 
withdraw my thoughts from my loneliness and to 
surmount sadness. How shall I again attain the 
happiness of my childhood, when he who was the 
glory, the joy, and the pride of my life sleeps in 
death ; when my hopes resemble unbalanced scales 



220 MEMOIR OF THE 

whicli rise and fall from one side to another. But 
no, I will not speak at random, only in heaven shall 
I again find all who formerly attracted me by bonds 
of love ; yes, in that promised land where ardent 
desires are appeased, where tears are dried. Yes, 
affliction is good ! 

I am very grateful, dear professor, for your kind 
intention of sending me a souvenir, which was des- 
tined for my Albert; be persuaded that any gift 
coming from you has great value, and that beautiful 
present, whicb will remind me of a favorite name,* 
will be of double worth. Your eyes have compla- 
cently rested upon those features which reveal the 
sublime genius of the poet ; your kindness destined 
that emblem of divine force for my brother, and now 
you wish that I should adorn my little apartment 
with it ; what could be dearer to me than an object 
recalling such remembrances ? 

In concluding, I again transmit the complimeiits 
of my relatives ; first those of my mother, who 
thinks of writing to you soon, then those of my sis- 
ter and the prince. General de Both, my Nancy, 

and the good L , desire to be remembered to 

you; your faithful friend B now addresses 

you from a better country than that of Mecklen- 
burg. 

* Dante. 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 221 

Still another request before taking leave of you ; 
your benevolence and affection for my brother will 
insure its acceptance. The thought of your having 
in your hands a souvenir of his x30ssessions would be 
very precious to me, for I might hope that it would 
sometimes set the image of my brother -before your 
eyes. Shall I forward it by the next courier .? I 
believe I hear a very kind yes, and confidently 
hazard the execution of my design. Your sympathy 
encourages me ; may it be a legacy left by the 
deceased to his poor and unworthy sister, and a 
source of benediction all her life. 

I remain, dear professor, with the most profound 

respect, your entirely devoted 

Helen. 

A friendly salutation to your dear wife ; if you 
see M. Oettl, remember me to him. He was in- 
finitely dear to my brother, and merits all our 
regard. I have taken a lively interest in making 
the acquaintance of your friend Schom ; h^ is an 
addition to Weimar. 

This letter was followed by another, dated 
Feb. 20th, 1835 : 

Deak Professoe, 

Without awaiting an affirmative reply to my 
petition, I have courage to give it success, counting 



222 MEMOIR OF THE 

Tipon tlie remembrance which you surely retain of 
my dear brother, and upon the affection of which 
you gave him so many proofs. 

I have thought that the telescope which always 
accompanied him in his travels in Switzerland, 
in the valleys of Silesia, in the magnificent plains of 
Lombardy, and in the steppes of la Marche, might be 
also useful to you in the course of the long journey 
you contemplate into the classic plains of Greece 
and to the sources of the Nile ; the plan of which 
voyage transported my brother, who intended to 
take part in it. If you find this object of service, 
make use of it from time to time, and think affec- 
tionately of one who is no more, and who wished for 
your sympathy. 

Accept, etc., 

Helen. 

My reply to the first of the preceding letters, 
and my thanks upon the occasion of her sending the 
beautiful DoUond, and which accompanied the sec- 
ond letter, reached their destination more haj)pily 
than the plaster bust of Dante, for, after a long 
delay, it came broken into the hands of her for 
whom it was destined. Nevertheless, in the letter 
which she wrote after the arrival of the case, she 
expressed her gratitude for the expression of my 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 223 

good will, and dwelt upon the genius of Dante, and 
the impression which his " Divina Commedia,'' 
" chant of eternity," had produced, and still con- 
tinued to produce upon her soul, but of the bust 
she spoke not. I regret that this letter has been 
unhappily lost or mislaid among my papers. All 
of its contents are not entirely effaced from my 
memory. At the time I received it I was inces- 
santly occupied with labors which must be finished 
before my departure for the East. Besides, from 
the autumn of 1835 to that of 1836, when I com- 
menced my journey, a portion of my time and 
strength was absorbed by university duties. It is 
probable that the last letter, addressed to me from 
Ludwigslust by the young princess, disappeared in 
the midst of papers that I have not had leisure to 
examine. 



224 



MEMOm OF THE 



YIII. 

LIFE, A DREAM. 

To souls wbich have received the gift of a lively 
and lofty hope, life here helow, with all its vicissi- 
tudes, is a perpetual prophetic dream, which is 
only realized when, after the dissolution of the 
earthly tenement, a new existence commences for 
the soul. This is expressed in the following pas- 
sage by an apostle, who by his words and acts, tes- 
tified that he felt the importance and signification 
of terrestrial life, as the embryo of life eternal. 
" But we know," says he, " that if our earthly 
house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a 
building of G-od, an house not made with hands, 
eternal in the heavens." (2 Cor. v. 1.) 

This promise to man is indeed not accom- 
plished till the soul leaves its earthly tent ; but is 



DUCHESS OF OKLEANS. 225 

often manifested symbolically in life, when man 
sees the crumbling of an edifice, which in his 
dreams he has elevated as a sure shelter. This 
human work, the feeble vessel in which one has 
confided his happiness for the present and future, 
is submerged by the tempest ; he sees himself 
alone, floating at venture upon a wreck, in the 
midst of fogs and darkness. But the invisible 
hand of eternal mercy has directed the winds and 
the waves ; dawn appears, and the shipwrecked 
one who believed himself lost, nears the isle of de- 
liverance, where open arms receive him with affec- 
tion, and where peace and joy re-enter the soul. 

The foundation of the edifice of dreams of 
the future and of terrestrial happiness, which the 
loving heart of the princess had erected, was the 
hope of passing her life near her brother Albert. 
This hope vanished, she found herself in the same 
situation as the bird whose home is in the branches 
of a tree, which is suddenly struck by lightning. 
Fatigued with flying, it seeks its daily shelter, and 
beholds it calcinated upon the earth ; but the bird 
is full of life, the first rays of the sun awakens it 
as before, and it makes its morning song heard. 

In the month of April, 1835, the princess' 
o-randfather, Frederick-Francis, entered upon the 
50th year of his government. The general jubilee 
10* 



226 



MEMOIR OF THE 



which accompanied the fetes of that anniversary, 
had an echo in the heart of the princess, who, for 
the first time since her brother's death, found se- 
renity of mind. She wrote to her friend that the 
surrounding joy not only had not made her shudder, 
but had even communicated a certain gayety to her. 
She loved to render herself useful to those of the 
most humble condition ; during the winter of 1836, 
she occupied herself in extending and ameliorating 
the Caroline Institution, which was founded by her 
deceased mother, and which was designed for the 
education of those destined for domestics. She did 
not dream of one day leaving her country, when 
from the height of the ancient castle of Schwerin, 
situated in the midst of a lake, her eye complacent- 
ly rested upon the snow and glacier, which in winter 
surrounded the isle and the castle like a rampart; 
What an abyss between this peaceful dwelling 
which satisfied her heart, and the vast horizon 
which the design of God was secretly opening, about 
this epoch.* 

About the time of the princes' departure from 
Berlin, the first part of the apostle's words, which 

* Prof. Schubert here makes mention of the visit of the 
French princes in Berlin, and the king's counsels with regard 
to union with the princess Helen. Since the substance is the 
same as that in the previous memoir, it is not necessary hero 
to quote him. 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS . 227 

pertain to the dissolution of the earthly tabernacle, 
seemed about to be realized with regard to the 
princess Helen. At Eisenberg (where she was visit- 
ing her relatives) she was attacked with hepatitis 
in so severe a manner, that she even believed her 
end approaching. The rumor, indiscreetly spread, 
that the heir to the throne of France had a view to 
her hand in marriage, painfully affected her, for her 
thoughts were now rather directed towards the hope 
of which the second part of the apostle's text guar- 
antees the certitude. 

Nature remained victorious ; the thought of 
death gave place to the hope of a terrestrial happi- 
ness, prepared by the marvellous counsels of Grod, 
and not by the foresight or efforts of men. Soon 
after the re -establishment of the princess' health, 
the family were apprised of the truth of the rumor, 
and in the beginning of the year 1837, the news 
spread from Mecklenburg, throughout all Germany 
and Europe.* 

She was, with regard to these disquietudes, in 

* Prof. Schubert, here also mentions the death of the 
grand-duke, and Paul Frederick's opposition to the princess' 
union with the duke of Orleans, and adds, " But, according to 
her habit, she followed the inspiration of her heart and re- 
mained firm, for she felt that she was directed ever by the hand 
of God." 



228 MEMOIE OF THE 

the same courageous state of mind in wMcli she 
was wken slie wrote four years before, to her friend, 
when she had yet no dream of her future destiny : 
" My imagination/' wrote she, " easily leads me, and 
often touches my whole being with its magic ring ; 
but when it is necessary, exultation and golden 
dreams vanish ; I bow to the iron rod of destiny, 
and, whatever may be my repugnance, I humble 
myself, seeking the finger of God in the course of 
events ; His ways are not always those of the heart 
and desire of youth, but they are always those of 
our true happiness." 

In this circumstance, the way in which she was 
directed was not difficult to follow, for all that she 
had learned of the duke was so conformed to her 
wishes that she had given him her heart, even be- 
fore she had seen him. He was, in every respect, 
the man whom she would desire to guide her life. 
Her attachment for the husband of her choice, was 
then, and always remained, purified by the fire of 
divine love. 

The Easter f^tes of 1837, arrived in the midst 
of the contests produced by this project of marriage. 
The Thursday before Easter, the princess received 
the communion, and obtained, to use her own ex- 
pression, " a new life through the gracious gift, the 
power of which passes all conception." 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 229 

"At tliis solemn moment/' wrote she to her 
friend, " I deeply felt that all is nothingness beside 
this grace, and that all feeling which flows not from 
the love of God, and which is not sanctified by his 
Spirit, is neither pm-e nor durable. Ah ! if we could 
only always build our edifice upon Him, in pros- 
perity as well as in trial ; and if, in all our life, we 
could have the firm persuasion that He loves us, and 
that His love produces precious fruit in. us ! " * 

The best letters brought by M. Bresson from 
the royal family, were those by the duke himself. 
The princess opened a correspondence with him, 
through which she became as well acquainted 
with the heart and mind of her betrothed as if 
she had been personally acquainted with him for 
years. 

The joy which seemed to fill France upon her 
arrival, contrasted strongly with her departure 
from Mecklenburg ; the latter seemed Hke a funeral 
train, of which the former was a veritable ovation. 
This striking contrast forcibly reminds me of an an- 
cient canticle, the words of which faithfully repro- 
duce the inward impressions of the princess, and the 

* Prof. Schubert's remarks concerning the princess' de- 
parture for France, and her reception along the route, so en- 
tirely accords with those of the marquess de H ■ that they 

may be omitted without detriment to the work. 



230 MEMOIR OF THE 

experiences that there were before her, in the fu- 
ture. 

" Ich traue denien "Wunderwegen, 
Sie enden sich in Lieb und Segen ; 
Geung, wennich Dich bei mi tab ! 
Icb weiss, wen Du willst herrlich zieren, 
Und ilber Mond und Sterne fiihren^ 
Denfulirest Du suvor Mnab." 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 231 



IX. 

THE ARRIVAL. 

A MORE solemn moment than those of these 
outward distinctions awaited the young betrothed 
at Chalons-sur-Marne. She did not yet know her 
future husband by sight, who had come there in 
advance of ber. He also, was very impatient to see 
one who was to be the companion of his life. It was 
known that the princess was endowed with great 
loveliness and high intellectual faculties, but at the 
same time less favorable rumors had been spread with 
regard to her personal appearance. A French lady 
who had seen her in Germany, wished to rectify 
this opinion, but the queen forbade it, charging her 
to say nothing to her son, in order that he might 
have a sweet surprise. The likeness which the 
prince had received of her, did not render the life 



232 MEMOIK OF THE 

and grace which particularly marked Helen's phy- 
siognomy ; hence was he struck with it. He en- 
tered with an almost timid air, but his eyes, at first 
cast down, became radiant with joy and emotion, 
■when, in the course of an animated interview, the 
delicate features of his betrothed became so trans- 
figured that they composed an ensemble of ideal 
beauty, while her noble bearing and the spirituelle 
dignity of her whole person awakened an indefina- 
ble sentiment of respect. The impression which 
the duke made upon the princess was not less 
favorable. In short, in the judgment of a shrewd 
observer, the young and handsome duke of Orleans, 
was the most accomplished and distinguished man 
of his time, by the union of physical advantages and 
intellectual and spiritual gifts. 

The prince, who now bore the image of the 
princess in his heart, hastened to Fontainbleau, 
where the royal family received the duchess with 
such afi*ection, that she soon no longer dreamed of 
being in a foreign court. Upon the 30th of' May, 
the day fixed for the marriage, the ceremony com- 
menced according to French custom, by the civil 
marriage in the gallery of Henry II. At half past 
eight o^'clock, the king appeared, giving his arm to 
the princess Helen, and was followed by all the 
royal family, as well as the numerous cortege of the 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 233 

officers of the palace. The ministers, marshals, 
deputies, municipal corps, with the generals and 
many invited guests, were there assembled. The 
princess' witnesses were, M, de Kantzau, marshal of 
the grand duchess' court, M. de Bresson, French 
minister to Berlin, who had conducted the marriage 
negotiations, and the duke de Choiseul. The chan- 
cellor, Duke Decazes, read the civil act in a solemn 
voice and in the midst of profound silence ; then he 
asked the duke of Orleans if he was resolved to take 
as his wife, Helen Louise-Elizabeth of Mecklenburg. 
The prince turned respectfully towards the king, 
and, upon an affirmative signal from his majesty, 
he replied to the chancellor in a firm voice : " Yes, 
Monsieur." The same question being put to the 
affianced princess, she turned towards her mothei-, 
the grand duchess, and after another sign of 'assent, 
said in a trembling voice : " Yes, Monsieur." The 
signatures were finally affixed according to the 
prescribed ceremonial ; after which, the civil mar- 
riage was at an end. 

It is not without a motive that we have recalled 
all the circumstances of this act, the solemnity of 
which was further enhanced by the lively interest 
manifested by the great personages of rank. A 
witness, placed somewhat behind the scenes, was 
more chilled than edified. " I have neT^*- been," 



234 MEMOIR OF THE 

said lie, " tlie friend of these theatrical representa- 
tions, which have the effect of exposing sacred 
things to the view of a curious multitude. This 
spectacle left me absolutely unmoved, though I was 
so easily affected by a simple canticle sung in a vil- 
lage church." 

When, in 1804, Napoleon drew Pope Pius VII. 
to Paris for his coronation, it was desired that 
some church music, of extraordinary power, should re- 
lieve the eclat of that solemnity. Twenty-four harps 
composed the orchestra ; one may easily believe that 
such a harmony would have a powerful effect upon 
the minds of the spectators. The ceremony com- 
menced ; the twenty-four harps struck their ac- 
cords ; the multitude expressed their delight by 
gestures and low exclamations. The pope then ap- 
proached the altar. To the harpists succeeded the 
choir of the Sistine chapel, which sang the ancient 
church canticle, Tu es Fetrus. Here the acclama- 
tions of transport from the multitude gave place 
to a mute surprise, which awakened in many hearts 
a truly religious feeling. 

The meditation of the princess did not depend 
upon external circumstances. The feeling of the 
sacredness and indissolubility of the marriage fiUed 
her heart ; for she felt that it was decided, not by 
the will of man, but by the favor and counsel of 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 235 

God. Her union was decreed in heaven, and her 
mouth, as well as her heart, gave the high and pub- 
lic testimony before God and man. 

From the gallery of Henry II., where the civil 
act was achieved, the great assembly withdrew to 
Henry IV.'s chapel. The bishop of Meaux, dressed 
in pontifical robes, made a touching address, fol- 
lowed by the marriage benediction. The names of 
the two affianced were finally inscribed in the 
church register. 

Then followed a new act according to the usage 
of the court of France. The assistants proceeded 
toward the Louis Philippe saloon. Here, was an 
altar covered with red velvet ; a crucifix was placed 
between four lighted tapers and before an open 
Bible ; the curate Cuvier, dear to many among us, 
was ready in a black robe before the altar, to bless 
the married couple, in his turn, according to the 
Lutheran rite. In a gentle, but firm voice, he 
made an exhortation, the power of which proceeded 
from the word of God. The sight of this. couple, 
possessing such rare qualities and evidently directed 
by the Spirit of God, gave to his voice, the elo- 
quence of his heart. After having put the same 
questions to them as the chancellor, and having 
heard their affirmative response, blessed them by 
laying on his hands, and finished the solemnity, 



236 MEMOm OF THE 

saying, "What Grod lias joined together, let no 
man put asunder." The duke, the duchess, -and 
witnesses inscribed their names in the register. 

The young duchess of Orleans from that time 
regularly attended worship in the Lutheran church 
in Paris, The impression made by her first appear- 
ance in that church, was reproduced upon every 
occasion of her public appearance ; a lady who was 
an eye-witness, thus makes mention of her : 

'' Being in Paris in 1848," wrote a friend to me, 
" I happened to be at the house of the pastor Ver- 
ney; (the same, who died at Strasburg, several years 
since;) conversation turned to the arrival of the 
duchess of Orleans and to her first appearance in the 

Protestant church, Madame Y , with her 

habitual vivacity, said : " I heard much of the im- 
pression the duchess of Orleans produced upon every 
one. But we French, do not make much of princes 
and princesses, and I thought people had erred in 
extolling her so much, I then went to the church 
with the intention of not allowing myself to be en- 
snared. When she entered, as she advanced down 
the aisle with her slight figure, as she bowed to the 
right and left with her fascinating and serious grace 
which suited the sanctity of the place, I was also 
smitten and my eyes were moist, as were those of 
all present. My intention to see nothing in her but 



DUCHESS OF OELEANS. 237 

that of an ordinary lady, and to do nothing but 
praise or criticise her toilet, had entirely disappeared. 
I was asked in the city, ' Did you see her bow tc 
the jight and to the left ? Did you remark that 
during the chant, she did not raise her eyes from 
her hymn book, etc ?' Then I understood the pre- 
occupied thoughts of those who found themselves in 
her path," 

We will not here recall the fHes given in Paris 
in honor of the princess' arrival, for it is easy to form 
an idea of them. The entire city and environs took 
an active part in them, and employed all their in- 
genuity to afford the princess an agreeable surprise. 
At the ball given at the H6tel-de-Yille, upon enter- 
ing, she saw panellings ornamented with pictures 
representing views of her own country. There were 
views of Ludwigslust, Schwerin, andDobberan, drawn 
by the pencil of a skilful artist. What we may still 
add, is, that neither the agitation of all these f^tes, 
nor inward emotion, nor the magnificence of the 
royal apartments, nor the interview with persons of 
the highest distinction, could for a single moment 
disturb the calm which was so natural to her ; she 
accepted those inevitable honors without being dis- 
tracted or fatigued ; it could be seen that she was 
touched and rejoiced ; one admired her manner of 
salutation, of observing everything, of understanding 



238 MEMOIR OF THE 

all, as well as of listening and speaking ; one was 
astonished at tlie sound of her gentle, pleasant voice, 
and her pure French accent.* 

* The grand duchess relates a trait characteristic of her per- 
fect calm and habitual dignity. They conducted the princess 
as in triumph to her apartments^ where she found displayed all 
that Paris could offer in the shape of trinkets, pearls, apparel, 
and other objects for the toilette. They expected transports of 
surprise, or a burst of joy. But she passed them in review with 
an unalterable sang froid^ as distant from disdain as from ad- 
miration ; it was a perfect tranquiUty which revealed a legitimate 
gratitude. " Oh ! it was magnificent to see " adds her noble 
mother with emotion. 



AUTHOR'S NOTE. 

A frenchman of rank, wrote about this epoch to a friend in 
Germany : " The papers will have long since informed you of all 
•the particulars of the journey and of the arrival of the duchess 
of Orleans, also of her marriage and the fetes which followed. 
But what no gazette relates and what I should endeavor in vain 
to describe, is the grace of that young princess, whom we have 
now the happiness o£ possessing. Praise to her education, in- 
tellect and lofty reason, has long since been accorded ; but what 
no person among us expected, and the prince less than others, 
is the indescribable charm spread over all her person and deli- 
cate features. Of all the conquests we have made in France, 
this is the most precious, and God be praised ! she will remain 
to us. She possesses all the qualities which are indispensable 
among us for a princess, and which are of greater price than the 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 239 

greatest beauty. It is impossible to associate so much truly- 
royal dignity with more presence of mind, reason, grace and 
modesty. Dream that I have daily under my eyes the model 
of all those qualities in the person of your adorable queen 
(Amelia) ; but I ought nevertheless to say, that the duchess 
possesses all that I can represent to myself of what is noble and 
attractive. 

The princess had then a share in the happiness which 
springs from affection, a happiness for which the human heart 
would wish an eternal duration. Yet she then recalled the 
fragility of earthly possessions, as she separated from one very 
dear to her. Her faithful governess, Miss Nancy Solomon, 
who had educated her with such perseverance, affection, and 
success, took leave of her former pupil, and affected with con- 
trasting emotions, returned to Geneva, the place of her birth. 



240 MEMOIE OF THE 



X. 

LOUIS PHILIPPE IN THE FAMILY CIRCLE. 

CoNTEMPOEAEiES havG drawn a portrait of the 
character and acts of Louis Philippe, which accord- 
ing to the different points of view, present the 
original in a more or less favorable light. They have 
succeeded as a painter would, commissioned to por- 
tray the face of a celebrated man, who has never 
sat for him, and who at the most has only seen him 
pass in the street. Wind, rain, or any contrariety 
whatever, would sensibly alter the lineaments and 
even modify the habitual bearing of the model. A 
friend who had daily been able to study the natural 
expression of his countenance, would not consider 
the portrait sketched upon a public place, a perfect 
one, and would regret that his friend had never 
been able to sit for the artist. 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 241 

Whoever could have seen Louis Philippe in the 
midst of his family, in the evening, after the fatigues 
of the day, would have been touched with the 
affection borne by all the members of it to this good 
father, and which united them to one another. One 
could there contemplate the happiness of this care- 
laden Mng, when found in his natural element ; a 
cordial and sincere affection was there realized in 
the just medium which he in vain sought to estab- 
lish among contending parties. In public life, if 
one is forced to render justice to his perfect probity 
and to the benevolence of his character, sometimes 
one might be contemned, sometimes another, some- 
times both ; but, in the family circle, he was what 
all desired — a devoted father, who desired but the 
happiness of his children. 

This need of affection, and outpouring of the 
heart ought to have been one of the dominant traits 
depicted in the character of the king of the French. 
The faithful friend, whose intimacy was not confined 
to entering the apartments, but also constantly 
sounded the depths of the heart, takes care that in 
the midst of the dangers with which Louis Philippe 
was threatened, this dominant trait should be pre- 
served and even enforced. The period of the birth 
of Louis Philippe (1773) was not favorable to the 
growth of such good germs. The salutary influence 
11 



242 MEMOm OF THE 

that miglit have been exercised over him by the 
artillery officer, Bonard, the preceptor of his child- 
hood, was certainly not developed by Madame de 
Genlis, under whose direction the young prince was 
placed at the age of nine years ; the warm atmos- 
phere of a conservatory may well produce the leaves 
and flowers of the palmy zone, but not savory or 
aromatic fruits. At a later period, the young duke 
de Chartres, by his prudence and valor in the revo- 
lutionary army was indeed applauded in the Jacobin 
Club, which he entered at the age of seventeen 
years, (1790) following the example of his father ; 
but this was not the standard ; a sentence of exile 
and four months of danger in the midst of moun- 
tains was necessary to develop the best germs in his 
heart. Those good principles were still further 
strengthened during his sojourn at E-eichenau, 
where under the name of Chabaud Latour, he oc- 
cupied the place of professor of geography and 
mathematics. He there gained the affection and 
esteem of his pupils, as well as the regard of the in- 
habitants of the country. The news of his father's 
execution, forced him to quit this place of repose. 
His resources would not permit his prosecuting his 
plan of going by the way of Hamburg to America ; 
they sufficed for a voyage to Denmark, Sweden, 
and Norway, as far as the North Gape ; this voyage 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 243 

developed his knowledge in more than one direc- 
tion.* 

" In the provisory government formed after the 
forfeiture of Charles X., Lafitte proposed that the 
duke of Orleans should be appointed lieutenant- 
general of the kingdom. Every one, weary of the 
contest, and desirous of order and tranquility, re- 
joiced when the duke, esteemed by both parties, ac- 
cepted his election. Becoming king of the French, 
he took the reins of government in hand, with the 
chimerical hope of reuniting the most diverse pre- 
tentions in a just medium. 

It is useless to speak words of peace in ears 
deafened by the storm of passions ; whoever seeks 
to act as mediator in contests between people in- 
sensible to reason, risks drawing the explosion of 
their fury upon him. The hatred of the revolution- 
ary party burst forth on the 28th of July, 1835, in 
the horrible attempt of Fieschi against the life of 
Louis Philippe, during a review. Twenty-one per- 
sons were mutilated in the immediate neighborhood 
of the king, who returned uninjured to the pious 
Amelia, whose prayers seemed to be his guardian 
angel. The following year, on the 25th of July, 1836, 

* The sketch of Louis Philippe's life at this period is in sub- 
stance the same as that given in a note in the work of the 
marquess de H . 



24:4 MEMOIR OF THE 

Alibaud sought to assassinate tlie king, but failed 
in his purpose ; and, in the month of December in 
the same year, the pistol of a workman again spared 
the life of Louis Philippe. The remembrance of 
these murderous attempts, were yet recent, when the 
princess Helen arrived in Paris to marry the duke 
of Orleans. She could see serious indications of the 
instability of a throne built upon so fragile a basis ; 
a less courageous soul would have been easily 
alarmed for the future. 

But while without in the political world, always 
iU at ease, contests between life and death contin- 
ued unremittingly, the same peace reigned in Louis 
PhiHppe's home circle. The good and pious Amelia, 
above all, contributed to sustain the heart of her 
husband, and those about him. If the king, wearied 
with the cares of the throne, found at home an 
asylum of repose, joy, and affection ; iier soul was 
constantly at peace. The king besides felt, that 
the hand of the Lord would protect and guard him 
until he had finished the laborious task of guiding 
the helm upon an incessantly agitated sea. 

We have still to mention some essential mem- 
bers of this family circle, who assembled twice a 
day around the king's table. Louis Philippe's sis- 
ter, Adelaide, had a right to equal respect with the 
queen, by the analogy of intellectual and spiritual 



DUCHESS OF OKLEANS, 245 

gifts, as well as by the rank whicli site occupied in 
the family. If the queen felt the most tender ma- 
ternal affection for her son's young wife, the princess 
Adelaide, recognized her as a messenger of good, 
" an angel sent from heaven to the royal family." 

The eldest son of the house, Duke Ferdinand 
Philippe of Orleans, whose place was beside his 
mother, not only attracted the attention of the 
stranger by the regularity of his features, but by the 
energy depicted upon his noble physiognomy. It 
awakened confidence and sympathy rather than 
fear, and when animated, became irresistible. At 
the age of twenty-one (1831), he arrested the ter- 
rible outbreak at Lyons solely by his personal influ- 
ence, without the use of threat or of the armed 
force commanded by marshal Soult. He confi- 
dently advanced into the midst of that unfortunate 
working class, distributed all in his power to ameli- 
orate the misery that the insurrection had still more 
augmented, and became the instrument of Provi- 
dence for these unfortunates. The poor of Paris af- 
terwards also learned to know and love the young 
duke of Orleans, when, during the terrible invasion 
of the cholera, he visited the sick at the peril of his 
life, in the Hotel-Dieu, and other hospitals in Paris. 
Louis Philippe also loved his people ; but that 
sympathetic power was enfeebled and neutralized 



246 MEMOIE OF THE 

witli liim by prudence ; wliileli is son forgot himself 
in dreaming only of the happiness of the nation, and 
thus gained the general affection. 

The duke of Orleans was in his twenty-seventh 
year at the time of his marriage. He was born on 
the 3d of September, at Palermo, the ancient resi- 
dence of the sovereigns of Sicily. In his fourth 
year, he accompanied his mother to Paris, but soon 
left the Palais-Koyal, to seek refuge with his par- 
ents in the village of Twickenham, near London. 
That exile was not long, and when his father found 
himself free possessor of his appanages, he confided 
the education of his eldest son to the public schools, 
a step which the Bourbon family highly censured, 
and which was received with great favor by the 
people. At nine years of age, Ferdinand entered 
the Henry IV. college. He cheerfully submitted 
to all the tasks of his companions, and shared 
their punishments and rewards. After having fol- 
lowed the course of the Polytechnic School, he 
honorably passed the examination of that cele- 
brated institution ; he then devoted himself to the 
study of the modern languages and military tactics, 
and became colonel of the first regiment of hussars. 
At the siege of Anvers, he commanded a division of 
the army ; three years after, he shared the dangers 
and fatigues of the French army in a campaign in 
Algeria and in the taking of Makara. 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 247 

Duke Louis de Nemours, worthy of emulating his 
eldest brother, also attracted attention by his noble 
chivalric bearing. He was the younger by four 
years, but he had had the same education. By the 
side of them at the royal table, might be seen Duke 
Henri d'Aumale, aged fifteen years, Duke Fran9ois 
de Joinville, aged nineteen, and the duke Antoine de 
Montpensier, who was only thirteen years of age. 
The princesses Louise, Marie, and Clementine, were 
attracted to their new sister, at the very first sight. 
Louise, who was the eldest, soon after married king 
Leopold whom she accompanied to Belgium ; 
Princess Marie, married the duke Alexander of 
Wurtemberg, and found in Germany, quiet, domes- 
tic happiness, but it was followed by a premature 
death. Clementine, the youngest of the king's 
daughters, adorned the life of Duke Augustus-Louis 
of Saxe-Coburg. 

If Louis Philippe's horizon was often o'erclouded, 
the members of his family were like so many stars 
whose friendly light reminded him, that, above the 
region of clouds, there was still a world of light, and 
that beyond the contest of passions and parties, 
there was a horizon of peace and unalterable love. 



MS MEMOIR OF THE 



XI. 

THE NEW LIFE OF THE FAMILY, 

We liere give, at tlie dictation of an exactly in- 
formed friend, a description of tlie days whicli the 
duchess Helen of Orleans, justly called the happiest 
of her life. 

In summer all the royal family ordinarily removed 
to the pleasant Neuilly Chateau, where Louis 
Philippe, before his accession to the throne, loved to 
retire during the finest portion of the year, in order 
to enjoy the beauties of nature and to flee from the 
noise of the Capital. " Here at Neuilly, France 
might have contemplated a model of simple and 
domestic virtues if the prejudices of the great world 
had permitted the appreciation of manners so patri- 
archal. And nevertheless it was these domestic 
virtues which survived the splendor of the throne ; 



DUCHESS OF OKLEANS, 249 

for wheii Louis Philippe let the sceptre, which he had 
too promptly seized, fall too easily from his hand, 
domestic happiness still remained to him ; the bond 
of affection which united the noble members of his 
family to him. 

At Neuilly, where the young couple retired 
shortly after their marriage, the king and the queen 
lived in the same castle with their unmarried chil- 
dren and the princess Adelaide. At fifteen minutes' 
distance, in the centre of the park, is the little 
Chateau of Villiers, which the duke and duchess of 
Orleans occupied ; they had assigned to the grand- 
duchess Augusta, and her suite a pleasant row of 
almost contiguous lodgings. That spirituelle prin- 
cess, who became soon the object of the royal 
family's respect and affection, had received the 
pressing invitation to remain near her daughter, 
until she should be well familiarized with the new 
existence of the duchess, and should have had 
leisure to enjoy all that might interest her in Paris. 
Even at Neuilly, persons who held the first rank in 
the great world of the capital, might be seen at the 
king's table. 

Upon Sunday, the duchess of Orleans accompa- 
nied by the grand-duchess, her mother, frequented 
the Lutheran Church of Paris, in which some 
ecclesiastics of rare merit alternately preached in 
11* 



250 MEMOIK OF THE 

Frencli and German, the doctrine of salvation 
through Christ. Beautiful evenings were consecrat- 
ed to excursions, even as far as Saint Cloud ; the 
borders of the Seine, were then bordered with 
curious gazers. Sometimes the young princes 
amused themselves with making bonfires ; and, 
when their royal father remarked that the lawn and 
fields had not been properly tended, they replied 
that they had wished to gratify their sister Helen, 
and the king accepted the excuse, for he was indul- 
gent to his daughter-in-law. 

The duchess who had given all her heart to her 
husband, rendered him as happy as it is possible for 
one to be on earth ; she was, one might say, the 
better half of his soul. He watched for the happi- 
ness of his wife with the greatest solicitude, who 
on her part, submitted to all his views, finding in 
him an aid and model, and asked Grod in all humil- 
ity to render her more worthy of being the compan- 
ion of such a husband. The duke manifested the 
most delicate attentions in the slightest details ; he 
superintended the regime of his wife, and proud of 
her beauty, controlled her toilet and went himself 
to gather the flowers in the Villiers garden with 
which he wished her to be adorned. When she 
walked out, leaning upon his arm, and when the 
multitude pressed to see the princess, he would say, 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 251 

smiling with pride, " Yes, my friends, this is my 
wife." 

This sentiment of happiness was not less live- 
ly, when the duchess seeking information in her in- 
terviews with the most erudite men, put questions 
to them which forced them to turn their meditations 
upon new subjects. She had early been habituated 
to serious thought, to listen and observe with 
attention, and to meditate upon good books ; en- 
dowed with a good memory and an active intellect, 
she often made a surprising but always just use of 
what she had learned. Yet, she remained humble 
and modest. When one praised her scientific pro- 
gress, she replied : ' ' Yes, what I know best is, that 
I know nothing, or at least nothing complete." 
One day while visiting the royal library, she heard 
some one express astonishment at her erudition, and 
repHed, smiling : " Yes, I am a savante who does 
not even comprehend the rudiments of science, 
Greek or Latin. 

This humility of her heart, showed itself to the 
best advantage and most habitually in her relations 
with the duke of Orleans. She wished to receive cul- 
ture of mind and heart from him ; and nevertheless 
it was he who felt elevated by her influence. The 
eminent faculties of the duke seem to have taken a 
more noble direction after his marriage. The 



252 MEMOIK OF THE 

duchess was his right arm even in the minutest 
details ; she was, especially, his treasury for works 
of beneficence, and in the accomplishment of these 
offices, she calculated the extent of misery rather 
than that of her resources ; for her purse was open- 
ed so largely for contribution that she sometimes 
found herself in a veritable embarrassment for 
money. 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 253 



XII. 

A LETTER WRITTEN IN A GARDEN. 

I HAVE already said, tliat about tlie epocli in 
wMcIl the life of the princess Helen took an unex- 
pected direction, I effected my voyage to the East. 
Before setting out on my journey, the vague rumor 
of an approaching marriage had reached my ear, 
but I paid no attention to it. It was not until the 
month of January, 1837, during my sojourn in 
Egypt, that I read in the Augsburg Gazette, the 
rejoicing confirmation of this report ; and from that 
time, during all my journey across the desert and 
the Holy Land, I did not cease, so to speak, to ad- 
dress my thoughts and benedictions to my dear 
pupil. For a long time I was unable to write^ and 
until I reached Athens, did not even know where 
to send a letter. While in quarantine at the laza- 
retto of St. Leopold, an opportunity presented itself 



254 MEMOIR OF THE 

of sending a winged harbinger, and shortly after, a 
letter dated from my prison. 

I have related in detail, the event to which I 
make allusion, in the third part of my journey in 
the East. An ill-humored lieutenant, who then 
acted as commandant of the lazaretto, absolutely 
wished to strangle and cast into the water two 
charming hull-bulls, or Oriental Nightingales, for 
fear of their propagating the cholera. I gave one 
to a young French officer who had accompanied us 
in a long-boat, from the steamer to the entrance of 
the lazaretto, and in exchange for this present, 
which gave him great pleasure, I begged him to re- 
mit the other to my friend, the physician of the 
vessel, Fosse, with the request that he would for- 
ward it to the duchess of Orleans. My commission 
was loyally fulfilled ; shortly after my return to 
Munich, I received the following letter from the 
princess, the contents of which proved, to my great 
joy, that she had not forgotten her former professor 
of Mecklenburg. 

October 7, 1837. 

You have greatly rejoiced me, dear professor, 
by sending your pretty hull-bull, and by your friend- 
ly letter. Accept my best thanks ; permit me ateo 
to add that every word coming from you is blessed 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 255 

to my soul, and tliat eacli testimony of your good re- 
membrance has great value in my eyes. The ideas 
you have expressed upon the subject of my mar- 
riage, in a letter addressed from Cairo, to my 
mother, have always done me inexpressible good. 
The letter, post-marked from the lazaretto, which 
is lying near me in the garden redolent with the per- 
fume of autumn flowers, develops the same subject 
and touches me deeply, for you approve the direc- 
tion my life has taken, you see in it a special bene- 
diction from Grod, and you double my joy by making 
mention of the high esteem, with which the noble 
family to which I now belong, inspire you. 

While you were making your pilgrimage in the 
beautiful Oriental countries, and while you were seek- 
ing to discover in the dreams of those dormant lands 
some sound of the language of the past, I also took 
my pilgrim's staff, tore myself from my country 
with its cherished tombs and sweet souvenirs of my 
childhood, and directed my steps towards the West 
where the voice of my heart and the destiny of my 
life called me ; where the benediction and counsel 
of my mother directed me, and where I now realize 
the dreams of my early years. Here my inward 
life receives new strength, and finds new aliment in 
the political contests ; I have a high mission in 
perspective, which exhorts me to prayer and serious 



266 MEMOIK OF THE 

activity. I should be very happy some day to see 
you here, in my new country, so beautiful and so 
active ; I would show you that the remembrance of 
you has faithfully accompanied me from my earhest 
childhood, and the graceful bird, whose song often 
relates the marvels of his distant country to me, 
would also salute his old master. 

Several extracts from your letters, which have 
appeared in the Augsburg Gazette, have warmly 
interested me, and have given me more vivacity in 
hoping that the oriental traveller, formerly known 
under the name of " Kist," "^ will, without delay, 
communicate the fruits of his pilgrimage to friends 
who already owe him so much. 

My compHments to Madame de Schubert, and 
to you, the assurance of my highest consideration, 

Helen, 
Duchess of Orleans, 

nee, H. de Mecklenburg. 

* As in my childhood I was accustomed to say that I would 
one day compose as beautiful poetry as Eist, my sister sur- 
named me " little Rist and great dreamer." — Atjthoe's Note. 



DUCHESS OF OELEANS. 267 



XIII. 

THE VOICE OF FILIAL GRATITUDE. 

The young ducliess, wlio had been tlie object of 
so many varied proofs of affection^ after her entrance 
into the royal family and into the choice circles of 
Paris, was especially happy in the general respect 
paid to her dear mother. She was more grateful to 
the preferences paid to the grand duchess, than for 
those paid to herself. She was indeed sufficiently 
acq[uainted with her mother's tastes to appreciate 
the sacrifice which she had made in changing her 
tranquH retreat of Friedensburg or Eudolstadt, for 
the great world of Paris. But here, and chiefly at 
Court, was recognized the maternal devotion and 
clear views which the grand duchess had evinced in 
the education of her daughter; thus was her return 
to Germany about the end of 1837, deeply regretted. 



358 MEMOIR OF TnE 

She left tranquilly and happily, for she had wit- 
nessed Helen's happiness. She wrote on the 15th 
of January, 1838 : 

" I might have sought in vain throughout entire 
Europe for a family circle where Helen would be as 
well cared for and as happy as in the one which I 
have learned to know. Ought I not to sing praises 
to my God, and testify my gratitude to Him ? For 
I see in all things how good Se is towards me." 

With regard to these words impressed with 
faith and gratitude, let us here place some letters 
by the duchess, for the first time since her seventh 
year, separated from her mother ; a mother whose 
devotion surpassed the limits of human strength. 
The passages that I here transcribe are textually 
imprinted in the original letters I have under my 
eyes. 

St. Cloud, October 3d, 1837, Evening. 

The first day of our separation is now passed, 
my dear and beloved mother. I am rejoiced, not 
only for myself, but also for you, for I know by what 
I have suffered to-day, that our adieus, have not been 
less painful to one than to the other, and I greatly 
fear lest your health be affected by it. 

Permit me again to say from the depths of my 
soul, how grateful I am for all that you have done 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 259 

for me since my childhood ; grateful for your love, 
which made you indulgent, patient, thoughtful — 
which has accompanied me each moment of my 
life — which has shared every thing with me, and 
which has diligently watched over me, with a 
prayerful spirit. Dear mother, it was not possible 
for me to express my feelings of love and gratitude, 
without weakening my strength, without paralyzing 
the courage which I wished to keep for your sake 
and the duke's at the last moment. 

But now, let me unfold my heart and tell you 
that my gratitude is profound, and that the remem- 
brance of the time when I was still under your wing 
will constantly accompany me and be my guardian- 
angel for the future. But I do not know why I 
speak thus ; for how can a child thank a mother 
for what she has done from maternal tenderness ? 
Your love directed you in every thing, and mine un- 
derstood it, or at least felt it, when I was blind and 
did not know your intentions. It will eternally live 
in the depths of my soul and will be my holy safe- 
guard. Oh ! dear mother, in thought I kiss your 
cherished hands, pray you to give me a benediction 
this evening, and to kiss me upon my forehead. 

P. S. — Though I have not much tact for writing, 
I cannot let this letter of our dear Helen's depart, 
without telling you that your place remains vacant 
among your devoted children. F. 0. 



260 MEMOIR OF THE 

October 4, in the Morning after Breakfast. 

I was interrupted last evening by my dear duke, 
who begged me to stop, because I was full of emotion. 
He wrote with his own hand the preceding words, 
and I to-day send the continuation of my letter. 

The queen, who has come to see what the or- 
phan is doing, charges me to write that she thinks 
much of you, that she regrets your absence and 
counts upon your promise. She has told me that 
she can never take your place, but that she will do 
her best, and that you may count upon her mater- 
nal affection. It is very true that no one can 
replace you, but I am happy in finding in the duke's 
mother, one who inspires me with such a firm con- 
fidence, and towards whom I feel so warmly 
attracted. 

I regret that I must close, for we are to be pre- 
sent at the king's breakfast. We go to-morrow to 
the solitude of Trianon. 

Ah ! dear, dear mother, how impossible is it for 
a letter to take the place of a life passed under the 
same roof! God grant that I may soon receive 
good news from your hand. Adieu, dear mother ; 
always your daughter 

Helen. 

P. S. — After breakfast. 

The king and court have been very good to me ; 
the king manifested much cordiality and sympathy. 



DTJOHESS OF OKLEANS. 261 

Trianon, October 6, 1837. 
My dear and beloved Mother, 

Eeturning an hour since from a long promenade 
with the duke, who spoke much of you and finally- 
left me to go to the chase, I found two words from 
the queen, who received your telegram at Paris and 
sent it to me, adding that I ought in my turn to 
forward a few lines before night_> which would again 
reach you. I need not say how much I have been 
touched with your attention, and how much I should 
like to respond at length, and according to the 
promptings of my heart. This method of commu- 
nication brings us near one another, but it is so la- 
conic ! After my calculation, you quitted French soil 
to-day at noon, my dear mother. You experienced a 
pang, I am persuaded; for I deeply feel the pain this 
thought has caused me. I cannot tell to what ex- 
tent I miss you, for you would believe me ungrate- 
ful to my good duke, who does every thing to lighten 
this painful separation. Your presence tranquillized 
us ; what you did for us, appeared much when you 
were here. Now it seems to us that we ought to 
be much more upon our guard, for no eye accom- 
panies us or watches over us like yours. Ah ! dear 
mother ! I should write entire volumes, if I would 
reproduce all the reflections that your departure has 
suggested to me, and the mourning this void causes 



262 



MEMOIE OF THE 



me ; but I do not wisli to sadden you, neitlier do I 
wisH to make myself more melanclioly than I am 
already ; it would afflict my dear duke instead of 
diverting Mm, as it is my duty to do. We are, in 
short, in our little hermitage at Trianon, and we 
live entirely alone. I here propose to do for him 
all that is in my power, and to render this abode 
where he will have no other resource than my 
society as agreeable as possible to him. 

The royal family, who accompanied us from St. 
Cloud, and who send, you their love, went to walk 
with us in the little wood, the rare vegetation of 
which you admired ; then they returned to Ver- 
sailles. To-day we rode in the carriage to St. 
Cloud to congratulate the king upon the occasion 
of his anniversary. I was touched to see the good 
and excellent king in the arms of his sons, and to 
remark the joy which their congratulations seemed 
to give him. I now eat strawberries every day, " in 
memory of you." Ah ! my good mother, how we 
miss you ! Adieu, my guardian angel, pray for 
your child, and often think of the affection she bears 
you. 

Helen. 

I do not reproduce a letter of the 11th of Octo- 
ber, expressing the same affectionate regrets for her 



DUCHESS OF OKLBAlfS. 263 

mother's absence, and the happiness of having re- 
ceived a letter from her ; it also contains some 
details upon the African expedition. The follow- 
ing contains several passages from a letter of the 
20th of October : 

" But now, before all things, I kiss your dear 
hand for your excellent letter, which was a journal 
of your life. At each word I thought to hear your 
voice ; I saw you before me and was happy in being 
near you. My joy is a little disturbed, because I 
cannot share it with my duke, who awaited as im- 
patiently as myself for news of you, and who will 
not return from the chase until this evening. With- 
out him, I only half enjoy it ; he so affectionately 
shares my sentiments, and so faithfully my grief ! 
He again fully proved this to me, on the 18th of 
October, a day* in which our thoughts certainly 
met upon one tomb. He well understood my grief, 
for, from all I communicated of my dear Albert, he 
learned to love him also. It was a consolation to 
me. That day was passed in complete retirement, 
although on the preceding one we had celebrated 
the marriage of Marie, which quickly recalled to 
our memory, the 30th of May and Fontainebleau." 

I do not make any use of several posterior let- 
* It was the anniversary of Prince Albert's death. 



264 MEMOIR OF THE 

ters, also addressed to tlie grand duchess. They 
contain some news of the African campaign, up to 
the taking of Constantine ; the duchess Helen here 
takes as lively a part as if the most ardent French 
blood flowed in her veins. 

The duke of Orleans, like the entire royal fami- 
ly, was animated with the same sentiments. All 
the princes and princesses were occupied with their 
mother in writing joyous messages to their distant 
friends, even as the duchess did to her mother. It 
would be pleasant to hear her describe the taking of 
ports, the brilliant fetes at Paris, and the joy of the 
people at the victory of the army. The enthusiasm 
of the princess for the glory and prosperity of the 
nation which had become her country, gives a par- 
ticular attraction to the description. But there 
are o^her fetes than those of which the echo ceased 
so quickly, other songs than those which filled the 
churches of the capital, where the grave tones of the 
organ, sometimes alternated with operatic airs. 
We have here in view, " those songs of triumph and 
deliverance which reverberated in the tabernacles of 
the just to celebrate the victories that guard the 
right of the eternal." In the following passages of 
a letter written in 1837, during the Christmas fes- 
tivals, there are questions of inward joy, the suc- 
cess, glory, and honor of which exist eternally : 



dtjchess of orleans. 265 

My dearly beloved Mother : 

To-day, our thouglits perhaps oftener meet than 
ordinarily. You have always marked it by many 
testimonials of love ; it has always been a fete day 
for your children, and my heart swells at the 
thought of the dispersion of all the inhabitants of 
Friedensburg, who were a year ago assembled 
around the Christmas-tree, and happy in examin- 
ing the beautiful presents offered by the hand of 
affection. I am also grateful to-day, but grateful 
in another point of view from that of a year ago. 
When I dreamed of France under the Christmas- 
boughs, and tried to paint what my future would 
be, I did not dare hope that God would grant me 
such a rich, noble destiny. Oh ! if you might only 
be here to-day, and to-morrow, dear mother ; for 
to-morrow, at the beautiful Christmas services, I 
shall take the communion ; my heart feels the need 
of kindling itself by the fireside of light and truth, 
and of strengthening itself against my lukewarm 
nature, which would extinguish the spark of faith, 
if not preserved from the vain frivolities and seduc- 
tions of the world. Without you, without some 
one affected in a like manner with myself, who un- 
derstands me and to whom I love to reveal myself, 
my task is difficult. I have hitherto been some- 
what spoiled ; in some respects it is better for me to 
12 



266 MEMOIR OF THE 

be alone, that I may turn entirely towards the Lord 
and wait for the action of his Spirit upon my heart ; 
for the rest, is one alone when one has Him for a 
friend, and when one dare ask every thing of Him ? 
I am rejoiced that Christmas is also thought much 
of in this kingdom. The Queen and Clementine are 
gone to prepare for the communion to-morrow. 

Ah ! my mother, how far am I yet from the 
model that our Saviour has given us ! Perhaps I 
have never felt so culpable as now ; for my luke- 
warmness seems more inexcusable now that I am 
in the midst of prosperity ; though I recognize a 
thousand calls from the Lord, in my present posi- 
tion, in the affection which surrounds me and in the 
duties which are incumbent upon me, I am guilty 
in having so little heart to respond. In a word, I 
am much" humiliated on account of my indolence 
and feebleness of faith, yet I am far from feeling 
sufficiently humble for the measure of my faults. 
When I am in this state of mind, I feel an inex- 
pressible need of conversing with you ; for, near you, 
I should be better, more faithful, more childlike, more 
firm. What a great blessing to have such a pious 
and faithful mother ! I cannot- duly bless God for 
having given you to me, in order that I might re- 
ceive warmth under your maternal wing. 



DTTCHESS OF ORLEANS. 267 

CniRSTMAS MOENING. 

Yesterday, my dear mother, after returning from 
church, I could not find a moment to write to you, 
and I regretted it very much, for it was a day when 
the holy communion was rendered very precious to 
me ! I warmly and deeply felt the nearness of the 
Saviour at the moment of communion, I took the 
" Imitation of Christ " with me, and I could read it 
with delight. Cuvier had marked a short sermon 
upon confession ; I examined myself upon each 
point, and I was chiefly humbled in considering 
what is said of indolence and lukewarmness. I 
approached the altar, and was strengthened in my 
faith and love for the Saviour, who alone has power 
to keep one faithful in the right way. 

On Christmas-eve, the good queen h^ pre- 
pared a surprise for me, by secrectly furnishing a 
beautiful tree, which was placed in my salon hlanc, 
in order that I might be reminded of Germany. 
She is so ingenious in preparing pleasant surprises, 
that in seeing her, I often dream of you. 

Another letter, written at the end of the year, 
expresses sentiments analogous to many letters of 
the first month of the year 1838. 



268 MEMOIE OF THE 



XIY. 

DOMESTIC PROSPERITY AND INWARD HAPPINESS. 

The ducliess' ardent desire to see her mother 
agaiiij was gratified in 1838, when she had the hope 
of giving the duke an heir. The state of her 
health obliged her to live in absolute retirement, 
where she communed only with Grod, her husband 
and herself. At this epoch she had still another 
source of delight. Mademoiselle Nancy Solomon, of 
Geneva, who had watched over her from her infancy 
and who shared all her joys and sorrows, passed 
several weeks with her, and seconded the duke in 
the attention which the situation of the princess 
req[uired. The duchess addressed me a letter about 
this time, of which the following is a copy : 

Dear Peofessor : 

Accept my sincere thanks for the interesting 



DUCHESS OF OELEANB. 269 

letter and oriental parcel wliicli you forwarded to me 
in the beginning of spring by young Scbmidt. I 
was tben suffering and living in entire solitude. 
Your words, tbe rose of Jericho in the marvellous 
progress of its unfolding and development, and 
finally the manna of the desert, which was given 
to you by the monks of the St. Catherine Convent, 
upon Sinai, with the leaves which surrounded these 
little treasures, all these souvenirs truly rejoiced me ; 
and, if I am late in expressing my gratitude, it is 
not less sincere. 

Let not your wishes cease to accompany our 
king, his children, and his subjects, for you can 
bring down to us from heaven true benediction, 
that benediction we have need of every hour, in our 
situation in life, and which is necessary above all to 
the king in his position. When the fatigues, bur- 
den, and responsibility of every decision are so 
great, the hand of our God alone can strengthen 
us ; it alone can direct us in the right way. I also, 
in my more restrained sphere, implore His assist- 
ance, and you will understand, that I expect the 
precious effects of it most specially at this moment 
and in a future which is opening under such happy 
auspices. 

You win certainly learn, with interest, that I 
am expecting my mother, who is to pass the sum- 



270 MEMOIK OF THE 

iner and autumn with us. She is nowhere so be- 
loved as in my own family, and she will never be 
able to find a son more faithful than the duke, af- 
ter the loss of one who was so tenderly attached to 
her. 

As you have always known how to appreciate 
the eminent character of Miss Nancy Solomon, you 
will doubtless be rejoiced to learn of her marriage 
with Colonel Bontems, of Geneva, known by his in- 
teresting travels, and an excellent man. After a life 
checkered with trials, it seems as if a happy and 
peaceful fate ought to be now in reserve for him. 

Tell Mrs. Schubert that her salutations gave me 
great pleasure, and that her promised visit gives 
me one not less. Yes, come and see for yourself all 
that is good, grand, and noble, here. 

I am, with the highest consideration, your old 
pupil, 

Helen. 

Neuilly, June 17, 1838. 

About the time when the preceding letter was 
written, the duchess had the long wished for happi- 
ness of seeing her mother. Upon setting her foot 
upon the French soil, the grand duchess already found 
a letter of welcome ; and, even after her arrival, the 
t^te-^-t^te did not suffice always for the duchess. 



DUCHESS OF OELEANS. 271 

who employed her pen to outpour her heart, when 
she had been prevented from seeing her mother. 
The following, among others, is a note written one 
evening : 

" Again a cordial good-night, my very dear moth- 
er. Unhappily hy ivriting, since it has not been 
possible for you to come to me. As we could not 
have an evening reading, I here copy a stanza,* 
and hope that you will awake early on the morrow 
and in good health. Your child." 

On the 24th of August, the birth of the count 
de Paris was a hajDpy event for France. The grand 
duchess remained with her daughter until the end 
of the autumn, and then their correspondence again 
took its course. 

I extract only one passage from a letter of the 
17th of November, 1838 : 

" Last evening, I made the acquaintance of our 
great German painter, Cornelius ; he explained to 
•us the designs of his Last Judgment, which he is 
painting in the choir of the Ludwigskirche. He 
told me that he meditated upon this creation for 

* Here is found in the original, a stanza of an evening hymn, 
by Paul Gerhardt. 



272 MEMOIR OF THE 

twenty years, and that lie had particularly studied 
Dante, after which he has reproduced the seven 
successive infernal regions of the damned. I find 
this plan incomparably more beautiful than that 
of Euhens, which I saw at Dresden ; I like the 
idea of placing the personified conscience in the 
centre of the picture, the book open upon the breast, 
and the eye raised towards the Judge, who with 
one hand banishes the wicked, and with the other, 
calls to Him his own." 

A few days after, the duchess thus spoke to 
me, in the following letter, of our great master, 
Cornelius : 

Paris, Nov. 19, 1838. 
I have, for a long time, dear professor, had the 
intention of thanking you for the letter you sent me 
by Madame Zech ; I have been prevented until 
now by joyous events, which doubtless will justify 
me in your eyes, and in which your heart will surely 
take part. The birth of my dear child, the indis- 
pensable cares which followed it, and then, the last 
delights of my mother's sojourn, made me suspend 
all correspondence ; I only commence to re-unite 
the ties which attach me to my own country. The 
hand of your friend,* will remit these lines to you, 
and I hope that this circumstance will procure a 
* Cornelius. 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 2Y3 

good welcome. A short interview wliicli I had with 
him^ leaves me with the regret that he does not 
make a longer sojourn in Paris, that we might be 
better able to appreciate so eminent an artist and 
man. The simple words which he expressed upon 
the subject of art, from their truth, found an echo 
in my soul, and I wish that our artists were animated 
with as serious a mind as his. In this respect also, 
the bonds between France and Germany are pre- 
cious to me, for it is evident to my view that the 
two nations would gain by uniting them. 

I remember with great pleasure the first days of 
my childhood, in which you filled my young heart 
with joy by your tales full of life and variety ; I 
find myself also wishing that my child may also 
have, from his earliest age, such an amiable ^ro, 
who may successfully influence his heart. His hap- 
piness, his future, his development, already occupy 
me more than I can tell ; you, without doubt, un- 
derstand me. The first impressions, of which the 
subsequent direction always bears the impress, ap- 
pears very important to me, and a mother ought to 
watch them from the earliest days : but for this 
wisdom, strength, and courage are necessary from 
on High. May Heaven grant them to me ! Pray 
for me, that the will of Grod may be accomplished 
in us. 



274 MEMOIR OF THE 

You perhaps already know that my mother 
wishes again to leave me, and to pass the sad win- 
ter in the solitude, now desert, of Ludwigslust. We 
have had very sweet interviews during these happy 
days, and her loving heart has been warmly attract- 
ed towards her grandson. 

I conclude, etc., 

Helen. 

P. S. — To my great regret, the pretty little bull- 
bull died this summer ; I am accorded the melan- 
choly consolation of having it stuffed to serve as a 
play-thing for my young son. Children ought to 
learn to like such things ; this pet merits a special 
liking. 

" In my last journey to Paris," wrote the grand 
duchess after her return, " I lived much more alone 
with Helen, because she remained from necessity at 
home. The dreaded moment passed so happily, 
that I have been humiliated on account of my 
fears. I have rarely seen so sweet a little babe as 
that." 

The grand duchess had other ideas than those 
of her daughter, as to the effect produced upon the 
state of her mind by the solitude of Ludwigslust. 
She wrote upon the subject : " I accommodated 
myself as much as possible to the life at Paris ; but 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 275 

I well see that it is difficult to live in the great 
world, though the grace of God renders that con- 
straint less painful. I find myself altogether at 
ease in my solitude, which I would sometimes ren- 
der still more profound." 

The happiness of the duchess of Orleans' family 
had now attained its height. Louis Philippe, al- 
ready disposed by nature to affection, had become 
the father of a still more tender family since the 
birth of his first grandchild. He often paused be- 
side the cradle of the sleeping infant, which he 
contemplated with an audible satisfaction ; and, 
still later, when the child, with his precocious intel- 
lect, comprehended the affection of his grandfather, 
extending his hands not less affectionately to him, 
the king ex]3erienced a delight above all others. 

In 1839, the duchess Helen had the grief of be- 
ing separated for several months from the duke. 
With his chivahic disposition, he could no longer 
resist the desire of taking part in a second campaign 
to Algiers ; he made his arrangements, and, ac- 
companied by the duchess, set out, through the 
south of France and the Pyrenees. I possess a let- 
ter which she wrote to me in the course of that 
year so important to her and many persons ; but as 
this letter contains only things which concern my- 
self, I substitute another addressed to her mother, 



276 MEMOIR OF THE 

in order to give insight into the plan and direction 
of the voyage. 

Paris, August 2, 1839. 

I write to-day in the midst of a great preoccu- 
pation, which I shall doubtless retain for some days, 
and which always precedes a journey. Though I 
can fearlessly confide my child to the queen, I can- 
not separate from him without a pang. We shall 
set out on the 9th, from to-day the 8th ; business 
still indispensable, the preliminary studies, the de- 
sire of approaching the table of the Lord, in order 
to receive strength and blessing, all this occupies 
me and keeps me from doing any thing with calm- 
ness. You are acquainted with this feeling, and 
doubtless pity me a little. You will surely fol- 
low us in thought, in our pilgrimage ; and your 
benediction, dear mother, will not fail us. Upon 
the 17th we shall arrive at Bordeaux ; our plan is 
to remain there six days, then go by the depart- 
ments of the south, to visit the beautiful Pyrenees 
and to go through Toulouse and Perpignan, The 
9th of September the duke embarks at Port-Yendre 
for Algiers ; I depart in aU haste, arrive on the 14th 
at Eandon where I am to find my aunt ; and, after 
having passed several days with her, return to 
Paris, to take my chUd again under my care. 

During my absence, the family go tc Eu, where 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 277 

they will doubtless take the child. Such are the 
vast projects which sometimes appear, problematical 
to me, because hero, the slightest thing overthrows 
plans for the future. You know well, dear mother, 
that your remembrance will accompany me, during 
all the journey. Provided nothing happens to the 
child ! that thought always agitates my poor heart, 
and I can only assuage it by the following prayer : 

" Breit' aus die Fliigel beide 
Und niram deiii Kiichlein ein ! 
Will Satan es verschlingen 
So lass die Englein singen, 
Dies Kind soil uverletzet seyn." 

Is it not this, dear mother, that you also will 
ask of God for him .^ 

Arrived at Port-Vendre, the department of the 
oriental Pyrenees, the duke took leave of his wife. 
This separation did not cost him less than it did her. 
He could not withdraw (he wrote in his journal) 
his eyes from the window where the duchess con- 
tinued her adieus, by waving her handkerchief ; but 
finally, distance put an end to that touching scene. 
After her return to Paris, the duchess consecrated 
herself entirely to her child. The king permitted 
her to live in retirement during the absence of the 
duke. Even when her husband was not the centre of 



278 MEMOIR OF THE 

her domestic life, slie could only live in spirit "with 
him and near him. The duke himself neglected no 
occasion of writing to her from Algiers ; and when 
the public journals sounded his praise, she was alto- 
gether happy. The royal family often came to see 
her at the hour when the little count de Paris slept, 
for that tender mother would leave him only then. 
When she received visits from the youngest mem- 
bers of her family, they read or sang in French. 
When seated beside her child's couch, she often oc- 
cupied herself with rewriting a journal of her jour- 
ney into, the beautiful countries of the South-west of 
France; this journal, illustrated with drawings, 
was destined to divert her cherished mother in her 
solitude of Ludwigslust. 

But I have still to mention another advantage 
which her excursion into the south of France and 
the Pyrenees produced, if one may so speak, for 
thousands of persons. The marriage of the duchess 
of Orleans, but still more her passage through the 
departments of the South, where the reformation 
counts many proselytes, had awakened legitimate 
hopes among the Protestants. Several friends, and 
among others, Heimpel Boissiers, who visited me at 
that time, have painted to me the joy and emotion 
which the presence of the duchess by the side of her 
noble husband excited among their co-religionists. 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 279 

Upon this occasion, I ouglit specially to reveal 
the influence, more or less recognized, which the 
professed religious belief of the duchess of Orleans 
exercised upon the French nation. Though she care- 
fully guarded against publicity with regard to her 
principles and life, the nation learned enough of them 
to esteem itself most happy in having such a mother 
to educate the heir to the crown and to inculcate firm 
principles, noble sentiments, and love for his future 
subjects. If the Protestants had not been then 
tolerated, the people would have been forced to re- 
spect a faith which a princess of such distinguished 
merit professed. Without claiming the least priv- 
ileges for her profession, the duchess, by the fruits 
of her faith, gained the public esteem for her cause, 
Louis Philippe, the first, expressed himself in the 
following manner : " I desire my grandson to be a 
Catholic, but I will never suffer the religion of my 
daughter-in-law to be the object of diplomatic ne- 
gotiation. That is an affair between her and God, 
and she shall never hear a word upon that subject, 
not provoked by herself." The confidence which 
the king and queen had in her was so great in this 
respect, that finally, she ventured herself to com- 
pose the first short pages for her children. While 
she frequented her modest, old Lutheran church in 
" la rue des Billettes," her young son, led by his 



280 MEMOm OF THE 

grandfather, went to hear mass, and afterward read 
the infantine prayers which his mother had written 
for him in large French characters. 

It was not only at Paris, but also in all France, 
from the Ehine to the Ocean, from the Pyrenees to 
la Mancha, that the coreligionists of the duchess 
Helen saw in her a friend of the Lord, who was 
also a devoted friend to them, and if necessary, a 
protectress ready to intercede in their hehalf. 

In 1840, the duke de Nemours married a Ger- 
man princess, who had her place in the circle of the 
royal lamily of France. In her, the duchess of 
Orleans acquired a sister with whom she shared all 
the remembrances of their common country, which 
thus lived again for both in the midst of France and 
the court. 

The duke of Orleans returned to Paris, and 
found, with his Helen and his young son, domestic 
joys which he ranked above all others. When they 
were seated at tea round the queen's table the 
duchess was always at his side ; Init when his mili- 
tary duties called him elsewhere, " she was accus- 
tomed to gain permission to remain in her room ; " 
she then placed little Count Paris in his cradle, and 
amused herself with his sweet childish babble, un- 
til he had closed his eyes under the influence of her 
songs. Then she absorbed herself in the study of 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 281 

Beethoven, whose admirable music she called the 
purest and noblest language ; or she consecrated 
her short leisure moments to writing to her relations 
and friends in Germany, whom she often desired 
to have more near her. She thus expresses herself 
in a letter to her friend : 

" When the soul outpours itself in a confidential 
letter, it seems that in that interview so full of 
charms, we feel still more deeply the happiness of 
affection, the grief of absence, and the Impatient 
desire to be eternally reunited. I speak of a reun- 
ion in eternity, which alone is uninterrupted, for 
that here below, which I doubtless love much, is 
ever but for a time." 

Sometimes, but less often than in the first year, 
that peaceful domestic life was interrupted by ex- 
cursions made with all the family, either to St. 
Cloud, to the ch&teau d'Eu, in the neighborhood of 
the sea, and interesting Treport. 

The following letter from the duchess, raises a 
corner of the curtain which unveils to view her 
calm, sweet domestic life : 

Neuilly, July 7, 1840. 
Behold a salutation coming from France to your 
address, dear professor, and to that of Madame 



282 MEMOIE OF THE 

Sclmbert, by the means of tlie amiable little lady 
de Zecb, wbo returns to Germany to remain there, 
I would rest upon each word destined to recall me to 
your memory, for it seems to me that years, far from 
enfeebling the impressions of my early years, in- 
creases my attachment and respect for you. It is 
as if your image presented itself always lively and 
fresh to my mind. I nevertheless desire with all 
my heart to see it animated with the reality, and 
from one year to another I count upon the visit you 
have promised me. 

Your bust adorns the chamber of my child, who 
calls it grandpapa ; his may also have its place in 
your cabinet, that in glancing at it, you may ad- 
dress a thought of paternal affection and benedic- 
tion to my son. I confide it then with this prayer 
to Madame de Zech, and join with it another little 
souvenir for your wife, which, from its quadruple 
utility, will perhaps be agreeable to her. Beg 
her to use it in remembrance of me, and to see in 
the casket the image of supreme affection — wisdom 
and grace — life, light, and love. 

I end with the assurance of my old and constant 
attachment, I no longer dare call it filial, for that 
age is long since passed. 

Helen. 



DUCHESS OF OKLEANS. 283 

I have under my eyes still anotlier letter, ante- 
rior to the preceding ; there is always the same 
spiritual harmony, but the accord is still more ele- 
vated in this ; the more restrained circle of a moth- 
er's tender cares for her child makes room for that 
of an ardent affection for her new country, whose 
fate warmly interests her : 

TuiLERiESj March 4, 1840. 

The expression of my profound gratitude, very 
dear professor, has long since advanced this letter 
by the medium of the countess G-iech, who has 
spoken much of you. I cannot, however, longer de- 
lay addressing my most lively thanks directly to 
you, and to tell you the pleasure that the reading 
of your interesting work, in which posterity will 
gather the fruits of your long labors, perseverance, 
and fatigue, gives me. I have not yet gone with 
you to the Holy Land ; I am exclusively occupied 
with Egypt, that land which has caused such grand 
questions in the modern world, after having guarded 
with its deposits of antiquity, that of immortality, 
the greatest of all. The altogether modern civili- 
zation grafted upon the old trunk of the votaries of 
the Koran, would be a study of very great interest. 

If the spirit of Christianity in modern civiliza- 
tion was more sound, more lively, and more ani- 



284 MEMOIR OF THE 

mated by the powerful breath which enkindles the 
flame of faith in souls and reverses incredulity and 
superstition ! But it is not thus ! We ought not, 
nevertheless, to doubt that the good seed, destined 
one day to fertilize the soil, will be thus propa- 
gated. 

Your wishes, your prayers for our country, and 
our house, which, according to your just expression, 
is placed in the fire of the bivouac of Europe, are 
always a great consolation to me, for I have faith 
in their efficacy, and I feel that we have need of 
them. Ah ! let us ask that faithful souls may not 
cease to pray with us and for us ; that the Lord, in 
the midst of so many tares, may let the wheat 
grow ; that in the contest the right may triumph ; 
that in the whirl of frivolity. His word may not be 
forgotten ; that in the general interest, the salva- 
tion of all may gain victory over the malign pas- 
sions. We live in a checkered world, where images 
the most revolting and the most noble arise, where 
faith and impiety come in collision. Pray, pray, is 
the watch- word ; pray that His kingdom may come, 
that His will may be done. 

My young son, of whom you speak, is a dear 
child, gay and happy ; he has my features and his 
father's eyes ; he is gentle, yet nevertheless has his 
own will ; he is very sensible, yet independent 



DUCHESS OF OKLEANS. 285 

enough ; may God guide liim ! He only can ; I 
wish to place my whole confidence in Him. 

Salute the good Oettl and your daughters, Selma 
and Adeline, whose features present themselves con- 
fusedly to my mind, as a dream of my childhood. 
I do not forget your dear wife, whose perseverance 
in that distant voyage, I have often admired. 

And now, adieu, think of me and pray for me, 
as a father. 

Helen. 

When I cast my eyes upon the terrestrial hap- 
piness which the princess, called to such a high mis- 
sion for time and eternity, enjoyed at this time, I 
feel pressed to recall once more the epigraph of a 
preceding chapter : "Life is a dream." 

Upon the 9th of November, 1840, the happy 
mother had a second son, Eobert, duke de Chartres. 
A short time before, she, with the count de Paris, 
had been attacked with the measles, and for a mo- 
ment her life was despaired of But the danger 
was passed ; and, independently of the duke, two 
loving and devoted hearts took a lively part in 
the maternal joys which followed her deliverance, 
these were the grand duchess Augusta of Mecklen- 
burg, and Madame de Bontems (Nancy Solomon) 
of G-eneva, who passed the winter in Paris. Care of 



286 MEMOIR OF THE 

her health obliged the duchess to live in almost ab- 
solute retirement ; she could then more frequently 
and uninterruptedly enjoy the charms of a little 
circle, composed of the duke, her two children, with 
her mother and her friend. The following letter, 
which she addressed me as a wish for a happy New 
Year, proves how she appreciated this happiness, 
how grateful she was, and how her inward joy must 
outpour itself : 

TuiLERiES, January 3, 1840. 

The message which I owe to your bounty, dear 
professor, gave me pleasure. You spoke of the ac- 
complishment of my- most ardent wishes, and my 
heart might well wish to accept the desires as pro- 
phetic, which sometimes change into mute prayers, 
as you yourself express it. Can the heart of a 
mother form a wish more profoundly felt, than that 
of seeing her child, her children grow up for the 
glory of Grod — that she may be a faithful instru- 
ment in his hand, of leading their young hearts to 
Him, and of one day seeing them upon the way of 
life ! You join in this prayer of my heart ; let me 
thank you for it, dear professor, your prayer is an 
aid to mine, I might say, a wing which gives it 
more easy access to the Lord. 

The interesting tales written by you as recrea- 



DUCHESS OF OKLEANS. 287 

tion after more serious labors, also merit special 
thanks. They often enlivened my mother and my- 
self, in" those hours of repose which followed the 
birth of my little Kobert, and which we were so 
happy in passing together. The day will come 
when it shall also servd as instruction for my chil- 
dren, one of whom, even now, often asks for little 
stories. Would I had your gift for narrating ! its 
charm exercised such a powerful influence over 
children who surrounded you. 

I still remember the happiness I felt in my 
fourth year, when you assembled us around you, 
and when the most pleasing objects crossed my 
imagination. The tales have vanished, but the 
taste for listening attentively, and attachment for 
the dear narrator, still remain to me ; and like tlie 
bee, I still draw a sweet and strengthening honey 
from the calyx of my first remembrance. 

The old year has now fled ; it has abounded in 
blessings for me ; but it has failed in one ; shall it 
be received in the course of the new year.^ — your 
visit, so long a time promised, shall it be realized ? 
I await like a child who counts upon a promise, and 
I shall continue to hope even until you are here. 

Helen, 

The pleasure which the indulgent duchess ex- 



288 MEMOIR OF THE 

pressed to have received from the reading of the 
first portion of my tales^ emboldened me to pay her 
the homage of the second, which I sent to her with 
a letter. The reader can divine the contents of 
her response, because the sentiments of the princess, 
so humble and so faithful to the impressions of her 
childhood, are well known, 

I am forced to extend a mourning veil over the 
portrait I- endeavor to sketch. 



DUCHESS OF OELEANS. 289 



XV. 

ENIGMA OF THE PRESENT LIFE. 

In tlie tropical regions where the ardent solar 
rays fall upon the heights, night surprises and 
astonishes the traveller coming from the North. 
He cannot here count upon a long twilight, which 
insensibly prepares the passage of the glory of the 
day to the obscurity of night. The sun sinks from 
the horizon, and the stars, arising from their incal- 
culable depths, quickly shine from every direction ; 
a new world seems to unfold itself to the solitary 
traveller. 

Such is the image of the unforeseen event, which 
awaited the life of the duchess of Orleans in 1842 ; 
it burst upon her by a dispensation, the depth of 
which no eye can measure, the bearing of which no 
intellect can fathom. Nevertheless, when the lov- 
ing heart of the princess found itself suddenly en- 
13 



t>iJO JIEMOIK OF Till'] 

veloped in darkness, the stars slione out iii tlie 
midst of tlie night. 

From the beginning of the year 1842, thoughts 
of death traversed the mind of the princess, who 
wrote to me in the month of March, in reply to a 
letter of mine : 

" She has attained her destination and her end ; 
the peaceful solitude of an afflicted woman— such 
was the destiny ; the attainment of good — such was 
the end ; two-fold mercy ; your words so profound 
and serious, so impressed with faith, have done me 
inexpressible good. Burning tears have erased those 
lines," etc. 

The grief with which her heart was then affect- 
ed, though profound, was not yet the thunder-stroke 
of the 13th of July, which broke a heart already 
wounded. 

In the midst of the happiness which she was 
enjoying in France, her remembrances recalled her to 
Mecklenburg. When she conversed with the duke, 
the manner in which she spoke of her relatives in 
Germany, made him love them. The sojourn that 
the grand duchess had made in Paris established 
the most intimate relations between the court of 
France and that of Mecklenburg. In such circum- 



DtrCIIESS OF ORLEANS. 291 

stances, the death of the grand duke Frederick- 
Paul (on the 7th of March, 1842), deeply moved 
the heart of the princess and was not without its 
influence upon the derangement of her health. 

[Professor Schubert here speaks of her departure to Plom- 
bieres, and introduces the following letter to her mother :] 

Plombieres, July 14, 1842. 

My deakly beloved Mother : 

Behold me in a peaceful and solitary valley of the 
Vosges district, where I often think of you, and where 
I, to-day, write this letter. Since you have heard 
tidings of me, we have happily made the journey, but 
by short stages, for my good duke cares for me like a 
new-born child. We crossed " la Champagne," pass- 
ing through Yitry and Toul, where is an ancient and 
very beautiful church. We saw Nancy, where the 
remembrance of the good Sanislas is still living ; 
from there we reached Plombieres, through Epinal. 
The Vosges district, in the midst of which I live, 
reminds me, forcibly, of the forests of Thuringia, 
the fresh and verdant valleys of Eisenach, and some- 
times of the valley of the Schwarzbourg. The popu- 
lation is good, tranquil, peaceable, brave, faithful, 
and very monarchical. It is in the Vosges depart- 
ment, that Wallach is, the community of Oberlin ; 
I count upon going there, and shall think much of 



292 MEMOIR OF THE 

you ; if possible, I shall go to see his tomb. Last 
Sunday, I received a visit from the minister Jaudt, 
who officiates at Raschau, in filial communion with 
the good Oberlin. 

For eight day si have been alone here, I have 
frequent moments of melancholy at the thought of 
being thus separated from the duke, my children, and 
all those that I love ; but this retired life, in which 
I find repose, has also its charms. I pray God to 
bless this sojourn to my soul. 

I believe that the baths will have a happy effect 
upon my disordered stomach. Do you know what I 
have eaten since the month of May.? Three milk 
porridges a day ; all other nourishment distresses 
me ; with that I do well. But since I could not 
live upon that all my life, and should become en- 
feebled, they have sent me here to habituate me in- 
sensibly to another regime. The baths are very 
agreeable, but they sometimes try me. Think of 
me, dear mother, on the 25th of this month ; that 
day I shall reach Strasburg, and shall remain there 
a week with the duke. This excursion, it is true, 
will interrupt my cure ; but it will be very agreea- 
ble to me. Without knowing it, Alsatia has al- 
ways been dear to me, for the population is both 
French and German ; there are such excellent peo- 
ple here, that I am happy in studying this portion 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 293 

of France. I experience a feeling peculiar to the 
idea of being near that good Germany. 

Nevertheless, the painful presentiments which 
had agitated the duchess in taking leave of her 
husband, -were only too welLfounded. It was a sep- 
aration not for a few weeks, but for all her life. I 
here allude to an event which soon happened, the 
news of which traversed Europe, and the remem- 
brance of which is still present to the minds of many. 
On the 13th of July, the duke went to Neuilly.* 
At the time of the catastrophe the grand duch- 
ess was at the waters of Marienbad ; receiving in- 
telligence of it through a courier, she hastened to 
join her daughter at Paris. She was providentially 
prepared for the mission she had to fulfil. In a 
word, before her departure from Mecklenburg, she 
was anxious to see Prince Albert's old instructor 
again, the pious pastor Koch. I have already 
spoken of that worthy ecclesiastic, whose memory 
will always be dear to me, though I had no further 
intercourse with him than that from Milan through 
the valley of the Khone, in company with prince 
Albert. 

* Here again, is an account given, of the accident which 
happened to the duke ©f Orleans, substantially the same as 
those previously given in former portions of this volume. 



29-i MEMOIR OF THE 

He had been dangerously ill since the month of 
November, and seemed to be in a state of conva- 
lescence. " In that hope/' wrote the grand duch- 
ess, " I dared to ask for an interview with him be- 
fore my departure, and gained permission. I found 
him still feeble, but amicable and rejoiced to see all 
three of us ; that is to say. Miss Sinclair, L. Ltitzow, 
and myself. I passed several happy hours in the 
house of this dear pastor. His aged mother ap- 
peared to me dying. She had been bed-ridden for 
some time ; I found her with clasped hands, await- 
ing the hour of her deliverance. I thought to say 
a last adieu to him, though my heart was pained 
at then, taking leave of him. Two days after, he 
entered into the joy of his Lord. Oh ! what a new 
and painful vacancy in our circle ! " 

Strengthened by the last benediction of a faith- 
ful disciple of the Saviour, who was now in that 
happy country, where his soul through hope had 
been, as it were, in advance of its release, the 
mother and duchess reached Paris and her daugh- 
ter. She was not astonished to find in her a resig- 
nation which seemed incomprehensible to others 
after such a trial, for she knew from whence she 
drew this resignation. The lines which the duchess 
had written to her mother on the 6th of July, al- 
ready bore the impress of it. 



duchess of orleans. 295 

Dear and tender Mother, 

The most frightful blow has fallen upon me ; 
you are already acquainted with it, through the 
queen's letter. God ! thou art severe and mys- 
terious in thy decrees, but nevertheless, I have 
faith in thy compassion ! 

Dear mother ! my heart is lacerated. You 
share my grief, for you loved him so much, and he 
had so much affection for you. I can only write of 
my misfortune, for my head is weak, my eyes burn, 
my hands tremble, and my heart is ready to break. 
Alas ! very dear mother, what a journey for you ! 
at your age again to have such bitter grief ! Oh ! 
come, come, that we may weep and pray together ! 

P. S. I arrived to-day from Plom.bieres, and 
am well ; my children also, God be praised ! the 
king even, but in what a state ! no words can de- 
scribe it. 

The duchess was ordinarily calm and silent, but 
she refused no obligation imposed upon her by the 
rank she occupied. Some hesitated to admit a few 
persons of her house, who desired to express their 
sympathy, but she replied : " Make them enter ; I 
wish to welcome as soon as possible all testimonials 
of others' grief, that I may be able sooner to be 
delivered entirely from mine." 



296 MEMOIR OF THE 

The children did not understand their irrepara- 
ble loss, nor the cause of their mother's tears, which 
redoubled their tenderness to her. In the first 
days which followed the death of the duke of Or- 
leans, the count de Paris often asked for his " petit 
papa," and was astonished to see his mother's tears 
flow more abundantly at these words. 

The tender affection of the grand duchess as- 
suaged the deep grief of her daughter. Never per- 
haps had the duchess offered more hearty thanks 
for having such a mother preserved to her. She 
committed her entirely to God, awaited every thing 
from Him, who had found it good to lay such a 
sore trial upon her. He had applied a balm to her 
wound ; He had indicated the route which she 
ought to follow, in a life now lonely and clouded. 
She had the assurance that He would never forsake 
her, that He would reattach her, if necessary, to 
that life which in her eyes was no longer precious. 

In the midst of her profound grief, the queen 
also aroused herself ; she could not contemplate her 
daughter, who had met with such a great loss, 
without emotion and admiration ; the duchess, on 
her part, redoubled her affection and respect for 
the mother of her husband, for she knew what he 
had been to the queen. 

The young widow, in the height of her grief, 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 297 

gratefully recognized the inestimable price of the 
happiness which she had enjoyed. " I would not 
have given my five years of felicity," said she to 
her maternal friend, Madame de Both, "if I thus 
might have escaped the sufferings which have lat- 
terly been my heritage." She expressed the same 
sentiment with still more energy, when she said to 
another friend, that " the sacrifice of a moment of 
her preceding happiness, would more than have 
ransomed her years of affliction." " Her felicity/' 
she added, "had been too great to be durable. 
She then could but render thanks to God for the 
past, and seek to forget her grief by only speaking 
of causes for gratitude." When the hours of an- 
guish and bitterness came upon her, she besought 
God that these moments might bear fruit for eter- 
nal life. Sometimes, doubtless, the desire of depart- 
ing was so strong within her heart, that she was 
tempted to ask deliverance of the Lord ; but the 
spirit of peace and resignation soon led her to 
quell her impatience. 

We still perceive, in these inward struggles, 
that human consolations are impotent, from the 
letter addressed to me two weeks after the duke's 
death. I only transcribe a few passages. 

13* 



298 MEMOIR OF THE 

Chateau d'Eu, Sept. 12, 1842. 

In the midst of tlie darkness wliicli surrounds 
me, dear professor, your letter has for a moment un- 
veiled the eternal kingdom of truth to my view ; 
and my stricken soul has been for a moment cheered 
and strengthened. Such was surely your desire ; it 
is fulfilled. Now I, in turn, express the wish of my 
heart ; when you think of me, in my great misfor- 
tune, in the severe tests that the Lord allots me, do 
not address me words of consolation, but words of 
truth, which in time, will give me heavenly conso- 
lation. Always write to me what the Word of Grod 
reveals upon eternity. Faith has surely the privi- 
lege of entering the kingdom of the blessed, in ad- 
vance ; but mine is still too disquieted to cast an . 
assured glance thitherward. The sufferings of a 
broken heart, of a broken life — the grief into which 
the thought of my children, my country, and the 
future plunges me, is still poignant ; its voice speaks 
too loud for me to hear the voice of the Lord. At 
times it seems to me well to hear a word of the 
kingdom of the dead, or rather of the kingdom 
of the living ; a word descends from the cross 
into my wounded heart ; but it is soon silenced 
by the lamentations of life. In the- contests of 
my soul, I have however kept the unalterable con- 
viction that the most mysterious and painful of 



DUCHESS OF OELEAIfS. 299 

God's dispensations are always an effect of His love ; 
when I can no longer even pray, I have yet daily to 
offer Him, the sacrifice of my ineffable grief, say- 
ing : " Lord ! I resign him ; Thou hast willed it, so 
let it be ! " Pray for me, pray for my poor chil- 
dren ; ask of the Father of orphans that he will 
have pity upon them. 

Helen. 



300 MEMOIJK OF THE 



XYI. 

DAY DAWNS. 

These words recall a well-known passage of the 
Psalmist : " Light is made for the just, and joy for 
the upright in heart." (Ps. xcvii. 11.) The duchess 
inwardly experienced the truth of these words of the 
prophet-king. 

Insensibly she found a new life in her love for 
her children, angels of peace whom God had left 
her, in taking him away whom she had loved so 
much. She recovered all her energy, and always 
serenely regarded her high mission of educating her 
young sons in the fear of God, and love of their fel- 
lows. It was feared that that long struggle would 
prove injurious to her health ; but contrary to all 
expectation, she gained more strength than before. 
She showed more enjoyment in her relations with 
her family ; she had such love for others and such 



DUCnESS OF OELEANS. 301 

desire to render them happy, that she soon learned 
to bear her sorrow alone ; she tried to smile, that 
the serenity of others around her might not be dis- 
turbed. Nothing was more touching than the sight 
of such a resigned affliction. Her passing gaiety 
resembled a sunbeam glancing through a dark 
cloud ; her inward grief sometimes reappeared, 
chiefly at certain dates which recalled old remem- 
brances. We remark this in the letters addressed 
to her mother. 

She wrote upon the 2d of June, 1843 : 

" On the 29th (May), the sixth anniversary of 
our arrival at Fontainebleau, our thoughts doubtless 
flowed together ; and the 30th, you surely read with 
emotion that beautiful passage in our choice of 
sacred texts : " What I do, thou knowest not now^ 
but thou shalt know hereafter." I have been struck 
with the mysterious hope implied in that consoling 
passage." 

Dreux, July 14, 1843. 
We have passed two days in this asylum of 
peace and eternal repose, from whence I wish to 
write before my departure, my dear and beloved 
mother. Here, where I have felt peace and hope 
enter my soul, by the tomb of my husband and in 
the midst of the most painful remembrances, here 



303 MEMOIK OF THE 

even, I pray you, have no more disquietude about 
me, when you know I am at Dreux, and no longer 
repeat to me, " do not go thither." The Lord has 
bestowed grace and peace upon the prayers I ad- 
dressed to him in this sacred place of repose ; I 
have found such consolation in the assurance of an 
eternal reunion, in my meditations upon the mercy 
and love of God, that I go away cheered and 
strengthened, I who came here crushed and de- 
spondent. It is as if I had breathed the pure air of 
eternity, from whence a ray of light penetrated into 
my heart, from whence an accord of celestial har- 
mony fell upon my ear. Yes, yes, the Lord is with 
us at the tomb of our beloved ones, when we ask 
Him with confidence and from the depths of the 
heart. He, the friend and physician of the soul. 
He remains faithful to us, and makes us see the 
country where all tears will be dried, where there 
will be no more grief, nor crying. Dear mother, I 
also prayed ardently for you yesterday, the 13th of 
July, when I felt your prayer, when I knew that 
you were near me. We arrived in the evening to 
pass the 13th together. A high and solemn mass 
of req[uiem was performed in the newly-built church. 
There was something of exaltation in the chanting 
of the psalms, and of the dies irce dies ilia, — ^but 
neither solemnity, nor sermon, nor human word can 



DUCHESS OF OKLEANS. 303 

equal what the Lord says to the soul from the silence 
of the tomb ; no language can express the feeling it 
made me experience. Cold, dead, and languishing 
as I was, I had not latterly wished to approach the 
sacred table ; to-day, I leave with the pressing de- 
sire to receive the communion at Neuilly day after 
to-morrow, and I hope that communion with my 
Saviour will increase my love for Him and strength- 
en my faith and hope. 

I embrace you, in thought, my dear and be- 
loved mother ; now, since I have so frankly spoken 
of all that has passed within me, you will no 
longer apprehend any thing when I go to my dear 
tomb. Your 

Helen. 

I quote only one passage from a letter of Christ- 
mas, 1843 : 

" I communed yesterday in the church of Ke- 
demption, after a very edifying preparatory service, 
conducted by the pastor Verny. Last evening he 
delivered an excellent discourse upon fidelity, and 
we have conversed together for a long time upon 
that subject. 'Ah ! if only the heart was^rm and 
not always rendered culpable by so many little 
infidelities.' He particularly insisted upon the ne- 



304 MEMOIK OF THE 

cessity of keeping the soul constantly under the eye 
of the Saviour. When a distraction comes, we 
ought to receive it praying ; ' Lord, abide with 
me.' In a word, one ought to live in the presence 
of the Lord, under his eye, like children under the 
eye of a mother. That is very difficult for me, for 
my default is losing myself in vagueness and then 
forgetting daily life with its hourly dangers. May 
God aid me to open my eyes upon my state and 
give me strength to labor for myself.'' 

The duchess continues, in the course of the 
year 1844, to describe the experiences of her heart 
to her mother, at the period which most specially 
reminded her of the death of her husband. We 
confine ourselves to abstracting a few passages. 

Letter of the 2d of July, 1844 : 

" I cannot tell you, dear mother, in what state I 
am since the fatal month has commenced. It is 
two years to-day since we departed for Plombieres ; 
during all the journey, he loaded me with attention 
and testimonials of his affection. Each hour, alas ! 
has its sweet remembrance, and each hour brings 
me nearer the terrible day, on which I lost so much. 
How falsely men judge, when they think time will 
heal wounds ! Grief is no longer so devouring, but 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 305 

it is not less intense ; the more the wound seems 
to heal upon the surface, the deeper also becomes 
the suffering. May God only sanctify my affliction, 
and preserve my soul from being consumed ! This 
fear is now so habitual and painful to me ; — ^it is 
frightful to feel the approach of spiritual death. 
May God preserve me from it." 

Letter of the 14th of July, 1844 : 

" Though the modern transformation of the 
sepulchre at Dreux, at first somewhat disturbed 
me, God again received my prayers and granted me 
very happy hours, in which the certainty of a reun- 
ion consoled me. After having prayed by the 
tomb, during the night I extracted the following 
passage, which comforted me, from my little col- 
lection of verses : "I have loved thee with an ever- 
lasting love ; therefore with loving-kindness have I 
drawn thee." (Jeremiah xxxi. : 3.) I passed the 
terrible 13 th of July, in praying, reading, and 
conversing affectionately with Louise, who becomes 
more dear to me, and edifies me by her exalted re- 
ligious views. We left at seven o'clock in the 
evening and arrived at two o'clock in the morning. 
This morning, my dear little Paris appeared to me 
like a sun-beam. He was so happy to see me, that 



306 MEMOIR OF THE 

it made me feel well. He had copied a beautiful 
verse for me and sent it to me." 

On the 24th of January, 1845, her birth-day, 
she wrote to her mother : 

" Such days, which have no higher significance 
than to cause us to cast a glance over the past and 
to elevate our hearts to God, one specially feels the 
rapidity of the flight of time, and the many things 
that have affected our hearts. Oh ! if our inner 
life could only advance each year by the blessing of 
the Lord, towards our eternal destination ! How 
long-suffering the Lord is towards us, when he ob- 
serves our slow progress, and often our culpable im- 
mobility. How forcibly we feel that this patience 
is an attribute of his divinity, for we are not capa- 
ble of possessing it. 

" Since I wrote to you, dear mother, the brilliant 
Parisian court, has again taken its course. Balls, 
concerts, and dramatic representations succeed each 
other at the Tuileries. As for me, I live tranquil- 
ly in my cell, and when I hear the music below me, 
at the home of the Nemours, I feel that, in the 
midst of my grief and solitude, God has given me 
the good part, and that separated from him for 
whom I bitterly weep, I live more with him through 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 307 

the communion of prayer and the spirit, than if we 
were both in the whirl of the world. Those are 
happy moments, in which I experience the peace of 
heaven ; but they do not last, and the bitterness of 
life always comes to tear them from me," 

Upon the recurrence of Easter, 1845, she wrote : 

" To-(iay is the beautiful Easter service ; I hope 
that it may be blessed to you, dear mother, and 
with you I enjoy the holy signification of the day. 
How miserable our lives would be without hope, 
without the conviction of the resurrection which 
this service gives us, without the seal of the great 
work of redemption ! how bitter our tears would be, 
in thinking of those whom we have lost, if we did 
not already see them in all the glory of a new life." 

Nevertheless, when she contrasted the suffer- 
ings of her long mourning with the joys which had 
preceded them, she always concluded as in this pas- 
sage from a letter to her mother : 

" You have passed our frontiers ; this new bar- 
rier afflicts me,* How many times, in the transit, 
you must have thought of our journey in 1837 ! 

* The grand duchess' return to Ludwigslust, May 10, 1843. 



308 ' MEMOIR OF THE 

How different and how beautiful every tiling then 
was ! For some time my hopes were not disap- 
pointed ; they have often been more than surpassed 
by the reality. And though they are now engulfed 
in a tomb, I would not exchange my lot for any 
other." 



DITCITESS OF ORLEANS. • 300 



XYII. 

PROGRESS OF OUTWARD EVENTS. 

Admikation and affection for the duchess of 
Orleans, arose almost to enthusiasm. " In her we 
have a great support," said a Frenchman, "for 
the love that she inspires, exalts the nation. This 
sentiment will bear its fruits for her children, and 
then she will again find happiness." 

Days and months followed each other without 
modifying her course of life. She wrote as often as 
formerly to her mother, but less often to her rela- 
tives. She fled, she said, from revealing the suffer- 
ings hidden within her soul, to distant persons who 
could not offer a word of encouragement or sympa- 
thy at the moment. 

Already in 1843, she succeeded in procuring a 
preceptor for the count de Paris, who responded to 
all the wishes and exigencies of her maternal love. 



310 MEMOIR OF Til ft 

"Among thousands of men," slie wrote, "I 
could not have found one more competent to direct 
my little Paris with wisdom and affection. The 
little one, progresses very well ; his heart, mind, 
and health develop themselves in a cheering man- 
ner." 

I place with the number of the happy remem- 
brances of my old age, the pleasure which I had in 
a passing personal acquaintance with that young 
preceptor, M. Eegnier, who remained faithful 
to the duchess in the first painful years of her 
exile. 

In the same letter addressed to her mother, she 
says with regard to the duke de Chartres : " Though 
pale and thin, Kobert is no longer ill ; but is full of 
vivacity and mischief." 

She obtained a G-erman governess for her young- 
est son, that he might learn her native language ; 
she frequently procured little Grerman books written 
for children, for him, among others those by Pocci. 

She had the consolation of having with her, dur- 
ing a portion of the summer, 1843, Madame de 
Bontems, whose affection, wisdom, and experience 
never failed to exercise a blessed influence upon her 
former pupU. Until the middle of autumn, the 
duchess sojourned with the royal family either at 



DUCHESS OF OELEAlSrS. 311 

Neuilly or at the Chateau d'Eu, situated near the 
sea, the air of which strengthened her ; she still 
passed the month of November at St. Cloud. 

Persons who were habitually with her, and even 
her less intimate friends, soon remarked that her 
sympathy for all that concerned them, was even 
more lively than in former times. She had learned 
in the scliool of her own sufferings to apply the true 
balm to wounded hearts, which those are rarely ac- 
quainted with who have constantly lived in prosperi- 
ty. She directed their reflections to the merciful 
ways of the Lord, who could work for good, in every 
affliction. 

" But," she wrote, "our eyes are often too 
blinded to recognize them ; our hearts too cold to 
feel them. Yes, tlie principal cause of our suffer- 
ings is in ourselves. If we were, as we should be, 
in true communion with Grod, every thing would be 
presented otherwise to our minds, and the most bit- 
ter stream would have its sweetness. We must 
then pray that the Lord would draw our hearts to 
Him, that he would enlighten us and make us deep- 
ly feel the price of his favor ; for life will then re- 
ceive new value in our eyes, and every thing will 
appear to us in its true light.'' 

The following letter which she addressed to me, 
in the month of March, of the following year, again 



312 MEMOIR OF THE 

testifies with, what gratitude she welcomed the 
slightest proof of respect and affection, even when 
offered by the most humble of her old friends. 

TuiLERiES, March 16, 1844. 

If I would tell you to what extent your last gift 
rejoiced me, dear professor, (for I cannot exchange 
that title so dear to me for thirty years, for any 
other,) I should be obliged to show you the joyous 
look of my child, when he listens to the tales I re- 
late to him of Moffat.* Your work has provided 
me with a daily spiritual aliment ; and in the eve- 
ning, with my two children, I have followed that 
faithful servant of Christ in his heroic pilgrimage. 
Accept my most hearty thanks for all the contents 
of that little volume, and for your friendly letter, 
which has deeply touched me. 

I have conversed much of you, with M. de B 

who bears this letter to you, I seize every occasion 
with joy which offers itself to revive the remem- 
brance of you, in others ; as for myself, I have no 
need to be reminded of it, for I very often think of 
the faithful and dear preceptor of my childhood, 
and I desire again to hear his voice in this world, 
if Grod wills it. 

Helen. 

* Allusion is here made to the life of Mofiat, grandfather of 
Livingston, missionary to the south of Africa. 



DUCHESS OF OELEANS. 313 

About the time in which this letter was writ- 
ten, the duchess had the pleasure of forming a per- 
sonal acquaintance with a native of Steinthal, 
Daniel Legrand, whom she loved and esteemed 
several years after. He had several times sent her 
good books at the Christmas festivals ; but chiefly, 
at the most painful period of her life, she had re- 
ceived a letter from him impressed with a Christian 
sympathy which deeply touched her. It will be 
seen from these letters that in him she recognized a 
man possessing the faith of a child and a touching 
piety, " an Israelite indeed, in whom there was no 
guile ; " she calls him a faithful servant of God, of 
the good school of Oberlin. 

At this epoch, she sought with preference the 
society of persons animated and penetrated with 
that Spirit of Christ, which is the principal of all 
truth. Hence she found great pleasure in making 
the acquaintance of Madame de Stael, who resided 
in Paris, during the winter of 1844, with the 
younger son of the duke de Broglie. 

" She sometimes comes to see me,'' wrote the 
duchess, "and always does me good by her pres- 
ence. She imposes one by her holy dignity, or 
rather by the reflection of the presence of God, 
which from her soul, radiates her whole person, to 
14 



314 MEMOIK OF THE 

such an extent that one can but have good thoughts 
while near her. She is deeply sincere^ and no per- 
son has ever made so great an impression upon me ; 
all that she says, all that she feels appears as puri- 
fied by truth. She has been a widow for seventeen 
years ; this long, long period of trial has purified and 
strengthened her. She has not only been deprived 
of her chief happiness, but in losing an only son 
at an early age, she has not even had in perspective 
that mission of maternal love which suffices to fill 
life, and which has remained to me. Since that day, 
she has not been able to shed tears. She passed 
several years in isolation, and it seemed natural to 
her to tear herself away from every thing, that she 
might live only for Him. But her sister-in-law, the 
duchess of Broglie, died, and her husband remitted 
his child, at the age of five years, to her for educa- 
tion. ' Why is this ^ ' she asked of the Lord ; 
' ought I again to form a new tie ? ' This ques- 
tion was not solved in her heart, but she surround- 
ed the child with the most maternal and affection- 
ate care, till she came to Paris to give him up to 
his father. Sometimes the duke de Broglie wishes 
him still to be under her guidance. They live in 
two different houses, and the child lives alternately 
with his father and his aunt/' 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 315 

The duchess wrote the following to me, on the 
15th of February, 1844 : 

" How much I thought of you, yesterday, while 
I was engaged with Madame de Stael in an ani- 
mated conversation, in which her faith and confi- 
dence in God spoke to my heart, and enkindled 
it. Hers is a very rare nature, upon which suffer- 
ing, and above all grace, have had a powerful effect. 
One feels that she has had great conflicts, that her 
heart has loved and suffered much ; one feels that 
she has gained the victory and acquired peace of 
soul ; what attracts me most towards her, is the im- 
press of entire truthfulness. Such a plenitude of 
spiritual life could not be associated with more 
simplicity, calmness, and absence of all pretension. 
What attractions she would have for you ! " 

When the duchess met with such persons, she 
did not disquiet herself with differences of worship, 
provided their faith manifested itself in love for the 
Saviour and his ransomed ones. At the period of 
the inauguration of the new Lutheran chapel, she 
did not approve of all the ideas expressed by a 
highly esteemed preacher, upon the disagreements 
of the Koman and the Lutheran Church, but she was 
deeply edified with the sweet and conciliating spirit, 



310 MEMOIR OF TlIK 

breathed in the prayer of M. Vallette at the end of 
the service. 

The attention which she accorded to the events 
of this world was small in comparison with the sym- 
pathy awakened within her by events of a superior 
order. Hence she took a lively interest in the voca- 
tion of Mademoiselle Marriana de Kantzau, the 
friend of her childhood, who became directress of 
the new institution of deaconesses in Berlin. Be- 
fore entering upon her duties, this lady visited the 
most celebrated hospitals of Germany, England, 
and France, and upon this occasion liad the happi- 
ness of seeing the duchess again, who wrote soon 
after : 

" Her visit gave mo very great pleasure, and her 
serious and holy resolution touched as well as edified 
me. May God bless her resolution and lighten the 
burden of that great administration. She will have 
to contend against many difficulties which oppress 
her and often disquiet me for her sake ; but the 
Lord, who has led her to this decision and has given 
her the firm conviction that she is following his will, 
will remain at her side to support and guide her." 

Nearly six years later, she thus judged her noble 
friend : " She is in every respect independent of all 



duciip:ss of ouja-ash. 817 

odious party prejudices, religious as well m politi- 
cal ; slie is beloved by all ; tJirougliout her wliole 
nature there is a clearness of view, decision, and 
government over herself, which one must admire ; 
but one also happily feels that she remains loving 
and devoted to all her former affections/' 

Mademoiselle do Eantzau could only consecrate 
a few years to her noble vocation ; she was one of 
the numerous friends of the duchess who preceded 
her into eternity. 

A letter written to me by the duchess Helen on 
the 29th of June, 1846, of which I here quote a 
few jjassages, procured me the privilege of also 
making the personal acquaintance of Mademoiselle 
Eantzau. I do not make special mention of the let- 
ters that I received the preceding year ; they were 
chiefly with regard to procuring a German valet de 
chambre for the young duke de Chiartres, through my 
mediation and that of a friend of the duchess who 
then resided at Munich. The letter of the 9th of 
June announces the arrival of our proteg6 : 

He arrived yesterday, Friday, in the morning, 
and commenced his services to-day. He seems to 
possess a good disposition, but it is necessary to see 
his work before judging of it. Once again receive 
the expression of my sincere gratitude for your co- 



318 MEMOIR OF THE 

operation in a circumstance which, might have 
seemed insignificant, if, like me, you did not think 
nothing unimportant that concerns the associa- 
tions of a child, and that all who approach him have 
their influence upon him. We have a visit from 
our prince royal in expectation. After so long a time, 
after twelve years, I am rejoiced at the thoughts of 
seeing him again, and hear so much said of him 
that his arrival will give me double pleasure. I 
doubtless wish that his wife, my dear Maria, might 
accompany him to. Paris ; but one cannot count 
upon this journey in the midst of her absorbing 
affliction.* What a loss her death is to my dear 
aunt ! All Prussia feels it deeply. 

I promised to speak to you of one of the friends 
of my youth, and to recommend her to your good- 
will, paternal counsels, and guidance. I refer to 
Mademoiselle Eantzau, niece of the excellent Mad- 
ame de Eantzau, whom you knew in Mecklenburg. 
She is a lady of great piety, who loves the Lord, 
and is entirely devoted to his service. Her inde- 
pendent position suggested the thought of conse- 
crating herself to the care and direction of children 
in Fliedner's establishment of Deaconesses, near 
the Ehine. She several months since occupied this 

* Allusion is here made to the death of the princess Wilhel- 
mina of Prussia, sister to the grand duchess Augusta of Meck- 
lenburg. 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 319 

important and difficult office, when slie was called 
to the post of directress of the new house of Dea- 
conesses in Berlin, which the king of Prussia wished 
to found. She has not accepted it without great 
contests, but she believes that she sees the call of 
God in it, and declares herself ready to undertake 
it. For the interests of the work, the king of 
Prussia desires that she should visit the principal 
establishments, where the sisters of charity labor, 
in several places, and among others at Munich. She 
desires that you should take her under your protec- 
tion. I know I am making a request which will be 
agreeable to you, for you never refuse your assist- 
ance and good counsel, and to a chUd of God less 
than any other person. I here enclose a few lines 
to the address of Mademoiselle de Kantzau, beg- 
ging you to remit them to her with your own hand, 
and I once again recommend my friend to your 
affectionate interest. 

Beceive, dear Professor, etc., 

Helen. 

Thus unremittingly did tiie noble activity of 
the duchess display itself ; she only found herself 
happy and at peace when the Lord offered some 
new devotion to her loving heart. But the first 
necessity of her heart, and the first duty of her life, 



320 MEMOIR OF Tira 

was always the education of her children for the 
glory of Grod, then' devotion to her neighbors, and 
particularly to her country. By the fidelity, love, 
conscientiousness, and judgment which constantly 
marked her maternal duties, the duchess of Orleans 
has rendered herself worthy of being an example 
for all mothers. We are going to introduce a few 
fragments of letters addressed to the grand duch- 
ess ; they refer to the early development of her two 
sons, which will give us an idea of the care she be- 
stowed from the earliest moment upon their edu- 
cation. At the time these fragments commence, 
the count de Paris is nearly six years old ; the duke 
de Chartres is in his third year. 

M. Eegnier, to whom allusion is made, entered 
upon his duties the 1st of June, 1843. The duch- 
ess writes to her mother on the 1st of June : 

" The relations between M. E. and the little one 
are excellent. You would be rejoiced to see with 
what gentleness and yet with what firmness he man- 
ages the child. Paris is attached to him, and dares 
no more disobey him than myself and Madame H. 
I anticipate excellent results from these new rela- 
tions. As to Eobert, he is very unhappy at being 
separated from his brother. He asks for him every 
moment, for he sees him but seldom, and loves him 



DUCHESS OF OKLEANS. 321 

much. He has need of being with other children 
more than Paris ; he grows weary when he plays 
alone. Paris is contented by himself, but he is 
nevertheless happy in being able to play with Kob- 
ert two hours daily." 

June 18. 
Every morning Paris reads Kobinson with M. 
E., who leads him to many instructive conversa- 
tions. I previously give him a short lesson in sacred 
history, which commences with a prayer. I cannot 
say that he is always attentive, but he nevertheless 
likes these narrations very much. 

October 15, 1843. 
I now also go from time to time to Versailles 
with Paris, in order to show him the historical pic- 
tures, and thus early to impress the history of the 
country upon him. He takes an interest in all, 
and sees nothing superficially. 

Day before Christmas,- 1843. 
To-morrow will be a trying day ; it is the open- 
ing of the chambers, I asked the king's permission 
to lead Paris to the queen's tribune. In doing so, I 
knew what task I was taking upon myself ; but it 
is good, I believe, for the members to see the lit- 
tle one, without his timidity being called in play, 
14* 



322 MEMOIK OF THE 

and without his being called into action, wHcli 
could scarcely be expected of a child of five years. 
I shall go then, and take my seat opposite the 
throne, which will always appear vacant to me. 

January 1, 1844. 
We, as formerly, ended the year at the king's, 
under the lighted tree. The children received great 
delight from their presents ; Paris above all, at the 
sight of a small cabinet of objects according to his 
taste. I returned with him, soon after, for it was 
late ; upon reaching his chamber, he quietly took 
a book, seated himself, and began to read without 
any appearance of distraction or excitement. His 
play-things arrived ; he did not cast a glance upon 
them, and said he wished to finish his history. That 
pleased me ; it is a good sign. 

March 6, 1844. 
My children are well and are developing very 
happily. Paris is always well employed ; but as he 
is very nervous and subject to headaches, his studies 
are not yet very heavy. Eobert now studies noth- 
ing, for since his sickness at St. Cloud, we have 
omitted all study, and I do not yet permit him to 
begin again. He loves me very much, and in a very 
touching manner ; I believe, that notwithstanding 
his affection for his nurse, he prefers me above all 



DUCHKSS OF OKLEANS. 3-/] 

tlie world ; lie wishes to be always at my side. 
Paris has a passion for drawing; he also writes 
many riddles, and takes great delight in dissecting 
each word in order to make a rebus. Greography, 
mathematics, history, and stories, all equally capti- 
vate his attention. 

From a rather later date. 
Paris at the table relates his tales to me with 
delight and an ever new zeal. Cyrus, Alexander, 
etc., play a great role in his narrations ; Eobert 
daily becomes more lively, more comical, and more 
original. His passion for design has rather sur- 
passed that of Paris, since we played some English, 
German, and French pieces upon a little theatre 
that his father had given him, and which we have 
discovered. Eobert also now learns English, for he 
complained much of not being able to understand 
the English piece. His German is not bad. 

April 14, 1844. 
I measure time by the development of my chil- 
dren ; they advance, particularly Paris. He is 
truly an amiable boy, tall, rosy, graceful, and above 
all, very studious and brave ; he has a good heart, 
with frankness and well-balanced ardor. He has 
been twice with me to the exhibition ; you can 
imagine what resolution it required of me, I 



SQi MEMOIE OF THE 

should never have done it, if so mucli had not been 
said of the seclusion in which I retain the child. 
It had an enormous success ; the people almost 
suffocated him with joy ; and, as for him, he was 
neither foolish nor timid, hut natural and busy, that 
is to say, full of interest for his dear machines, 
which he has a passion for. Happily, praise and 
admiration do not at all dispose him to vanity ; he 
does not set value upon it. Little Eobert, who ex- 
amined the people more than the machines, and was 
in the back-ground, was very happy that the peo- 
ple also took notice of him. There was nothing on 
his part but sallies, good humor, and vivacity ; 
sometimes I do not know how to put an end to 
these little impertinences ; he is too amusing ; but, 
notwithstanding his good heart which is in his 
favor, it is necessary to be severe with him. 

July 5, 1844. 
Paris and Kobert have their little conversations 
together, in which the character of each is dis- 
played in a strong light ; one fuU of reason and 
depth ; the other, of intelligence and vivacity. 

January 2, 1845. 
What will you say, dear mother, upon learning 
that I was present at a reception party, yester- 
day ? The king wished Paris to be present. The 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 325 

cliild made a good appearance ; lie was tranquil, 
polite, natural, and awakened sympathy. In a 
word, he gave me great pleasure that day ; in the 
morning he brought me a letter which he had com- 
posed and written entirely alone ; he was besides 
cordial and happy, and clearly proved his affection 
for me. The poor child had many letters to write 
for the new year ; but yours and mine, without aid 
from any one whatever. He wrote them in love. 

January 13, 1845. 
The differences of the two characters, happily 
for their mutual relations, add to the difficulty of 
their education, for it is necessary to lead and di- 
rect them differently, without appearing unjust. If 
I punish one, and confine myself to giving a lesson 
in a playful tone to the other, it appears partial, 
and nevertheless one can often reach the same end 
only by different roads. Grod will surely lead 
them. 

TuiLEEiES, July 24, 1845. 

My children are well and rejoice me by their 
progress. Paris becomes more frank towards me ; 
what he formerly possessed in the depths of his soul 
without the power to express, now pervades his 
whole nature. 

Upon returning lately from the opening of the 



3-6 . MEMOIK OF THE 

chambers, he wished to dictate the discourse of the 
king, which he had listened too with great atten- 
tion, to M. E, He acquires a great facility of 
analysis, which will be very useful to him. 

You ought to see the joy of my children, their 
happiness in giving. They have worked a long time, 
to their surprise, Paris printed a geography* of 
Mecklenburg for me, with a map designed by his 
hand ; a copy is destined for you which will soon 
be sent. Kobert has learned to read in German, 
has recited something in English, and made good 
progress. It was pleasant to see their delight, 
which lasted all day. We are reunited at Neuilly. 

JxmE 8, 1845. 
To-morrow I shall accompany my little Paris to 
a concert of a thousand young singers from all the 
schools of the city, who sing justly and without in- 
struments. They come from Sunday schools which 
unite in the Champs-Elys6es, I had been besought 
to take Paris there, that he might encourage the 
efforts of his less-favored cotemporaries by his 
presence. 

Easter, 1845. 
Kobert went to-day to mass for the first time. 

* With a little printing-press, a present from his grand- 
father. 



DTJCHESS OF ORLEANS. 327 

He went alone with liis brother and the king. The 
latter was very content with his conduct, and the 
little one well satisfied with himself. His regard 
for the holiness of the place wiU arise little by little ; 
the Lord will always expand this feeling in the 
souls of children ; we only ought to pray faithfully 
for them. 

These passages give us sufficient insight to the 
maternal occupations of a princess who had herself 
"been educated with a view to the contests of hfe 
and the peace of eternity. To end this subject, 
I here insert another letter addressed to me. 

TuiLEEiES, Jan. 3, 1846. 

A voice, which is the echo of the country, the 
echo of childhood, profoundly moves the heart. 
But when that voice is that of an old master and 
friend, whose accents, always harmonious, never 
resound in vain, then the emotion becomes joyous 
and res]3onds to the expectation of one who pro- 
voked it. 

If you knew to what extent each word coming 
from you is precious to me, you would feel aU the 
depth of my gratitude. 

To-day, it is still more lively, for the heart of a 



328 MEMOIR OF THE 

motlier is. more touclied "by the goodness manifested 
to her children than by that of which she is the 
object. I have at this moment to express to you 
the joy of my son, whose face became radiant when 
I remitted him your beautiful present, and found 
that he could there fluently read interesting and 
instructive things. He loves, as well as a child of 
seven years can love, science, and all that is grave 
and profound. He likes to see a savant; he has 
your name in great veneration, not only from that 
motive, but for all that his mother has related to 
him of the faithful preceptor of her childhood. The 
book which you sent him will become more and 
more dear to him, in proportion as his young intel- 
lect comprehends its depths ; your teachings which 
ascend always to the Creator, as the primary source 
of all that we find beautiful and marvellous, will 
diffuse that freshness and candor in his heart, which 
dry dead science often destroys. 

His preceptor faithfully aids me in keeping him 
in this way, for he combines heart and character 
with a superior degree of intellect. 

The agitation which manifests itself in Germany 
is without doubt serious, and also much occupies me. 
God grant that the true German spirit may come 
out victorious from all these embarrassments, and 
that the nation may enter in possession of the indis- 



DUCHESS OF OELEANS. 329 

pensable liberties in the progress of the human 
mind and the truth. May all this disquietude ter- 
minate peacefully ! 

My cordial salutations to Madame de Schubert 
and your dear Selina. 

Helen. 



The grand-duchess Augusta wrote in 1847, 
after her return from Paris : 



" The hand of God guides Helen and her 
children ; what have I to fear ? He has permitted 
me to pass some time with her ; I have more and 
more recognized with admiration that she is at the 
height of her difficult mission, and I have felt how 
small I am beside her." 

The conduct of the duchess during the course 
of the following year (1848) well justified the un- 
wavering confidence which the princess Augusta 
placed in her daughter's high faculties. After 
having once more fulfilled the duty of protecting 
the rights of her children, and contended in favor 
of the maintenance of order and happiness in her 
dear adopted country, the duchess of Orleans passed 
through, all the perils of that year with a pure con- 



330 MEMOIK OF THE 

science and inexliaustible courage. She liad doubt- 
less long liad tlie feeling of the instability of a 
throne which could not be strengthened by at- 
tempts to conciliate hostile and heterogeneous 
parties. 

Coming to an end of an important period of the 
life of the duchess of Orleans, I will here recite the 
judgment pronounced upon her by one of the best 
German papers. 

" Whatever may be the design of Providence 
with regard to the moment in which the king shall 
be called to resign the task of his life, all concurs 
to prepare the count de Paris worthily for his 
future and important mission. The prince receives 
an education in every respect distinguished, under 
the superintendence of the king himself and the 
duchess of Orleans. One is moved to see with what 
indefatigable solicitude and with what maternal 
love the duchess watches over her children ; she is, 
in this respect, the model of women and mothers, 
and has conquered the esteem of all the nation. A 
princess in France has rarely enjoyed a parallel 
popularity among all classes of the people, and 
without distinction of party ; wherever she presents 
herself, she receives testimonials of it. Her benevo- 
lence, to whom no unfortunate appeals in vain, has 
contributed, not less than her piety, to gain all 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 331 

hearts. One may see, twice a week, a simple car- 
riage issuing witliout escort from the Tuileries, and 
taking the direction of the Protestant chapel. It 
contains the duchess of Orleans, on her way to at- 
tend worship at her church. 



332 MEMOIK OF TIfE 



XYIII. 

THE REVOLUTION OF FEBRUARY AND ITS CONSEQUENCES. 

For tlie first time since tlie death of her hus- 
band, the duchess wrote that " her birthday had 
been a fete, which the most tender testimonials of 
the affection of her children had rendered dear." 
On the 5th of February, scarcely three weeks be- 
fore the event which the world called a great mis- 
fortune for her and her sons, she stiU speaks in a 
letter of her inward happiness and attachment to 
that beautiful France, her country, where she was 
anticipating a visit from the friend whom she was 
then addressing. 

This peace at the approach of misfortune, is a 
somewhat prophetical manifestation of the eternal 
joy which is to follow the light afflictions of this 
world. According to the testimony of the Book 



DUCHESS OK OKLEANS. 333 

of Eevelation, the celestial army already hear the 
shouts of triumph, when ruin and distress mutter 
like the storm, and outpour themselves upon the 
powers of the earth. 

In her letters to a few influential friends, and 
to her relations in Germany, the duchess of Orleans 
had a good right to contradict the rumor, spread by 
several public pamphlets, that her relations with 
the royal family were altered since the death of the 
duke ; she had never ceased, said she in her ma- 
ternal language, " to be borne in the arms of love." 
If the situation of the duchess remained the same 
in the family circle, Louis Philippe nevertheless in 
the loss of his son had lost a pledge for the future, 
and a counsellor, who, seconded by the duchess, 
opened the eyes of his royal father to the conse- 
quences of an inopportune resistance, and moder- 
ated excited measures, by a spontaneous prudence 
or foreign influence. We are not here to describe 
the past events of the revolution of February ; that 
task belongs to political history ; for no witness can 
embrace the whole, and each judges differently, ac- 
cording to his point of view. Nevertheless the 
most divergent witnesses agree in rendering homage 
to the presence of mind and courage manifested by 
the duchess of Orleans. An account of her con- 



334 MEMOIK OF THE 

duct during tlie days of February, is essential to 
her biograpliy.* 

Mademoiselle Sinclair accompanied the grand 
duchess to meet her daughter at Ems, and in a 
letter describes the meeting of the two princesses. 
We quote the following passage, which vividly de- 
picts the inward disposition and outward desolation 
of the noble exiled duchess. 

"I still see her, as she appeared upon her arri- 
val at Ems, on the 18th of March ; she was at the 
foot of the front steps, pale, but full of energy and 
confidence in Grod. I see her fold her mother, 
whose arrival she had awaited so impatiently, to 
her heart. How touching and sublime she was ! 
"Whenever my merfiory recalls the peaceful weeks 
at Ems, it seems to me as if a little sanctuary 
opened before me. She was almost destitute of 
necessaries, but the dear princess was grand in the 
midst of aU these privations. She still wished to 
simplify every thing, and to renounce every thing 
not indispensably necessary. I shall never forget 
what she said to me one evening, in a playful tone, 
^ Clara, we will indulge ourselves in a little fete to- 
day ; we will drink some tea ; ' (the domestic reg- 

* Prof. Schubert's account fully accords with the one pre- 
viously given, and is essentially the same.] 



DUCHESS OF OELEAlsTS. 335 

ulation forbid tea.) I hastened to order it ; the 
good duchess, always amiable and naive, first tasted 
it, then insisted that M. Kegnier should also come 
and drink it with his colleague. She begged me 
to invite them ; but delicacy led them to refuse ; 
she went herself, and they obeyed. Oh ! those 
were hours which no words can describe, and which 
one must treasure in the depths of one's heart." 

Even then " she was not unhappy ; " this asser- 
tion of her august mother is assuredly a great 
truth. 

A loving heart never sympathizes more deeply 
with the trials of others than when itself stricken 
by misfortune. This the duchess experienced, and 
it led her to write me a letter from Ems full of 
solicitude for the young man of Munich, who, upon 
my recommendation, had entered into the service of 
the duke de Chartres. 

Ems, April, 1848. 

Dear Peofessor : 

Since the storms which it has pleased the Lord 
to send upon my dear France, I have had the feel- 
ing that your prayers and thoughts were accom- 
panying me. I also believed I shall one day receive 
some word of faithful remembrance from you. I 
hope for it now, for I will never doubt your sym- 



336 MEMOIK OF THE 

patty. Mine is always with you, and I have more 
than once been saddened in thinking of the cares 
you have had in these latter days.* May God 
calm these disquietudes ! — this hope is well found- 
ed, since your king seems to take the great task to 
heart, which has fallen to him in these difficult 
times. My prayers and wishes accompany him and 
the queen. 

Yesterday, dear professor, I wrote to you with 
regard to the excellent young man, who in happier 
days, you recommended to the office of valet-de- 
chamhre to my youngest son. At the moment of 
the revolution, when I was obliged to leave that 
dear city of Paris, he was separated from me, and 
returned to his own country several days after ; for 
it was unhappily impossible for me to retain him in 
my service, notwithstanding the zeal, fidelity, and 
intelligence, which he had constantly manifested. 
I promised him that I would have recourse to your 
benevolence to procure another position, if possible. 
If you say one word, in my name, to the countess 
Grrawenreuth, and perhaps to queen Maria, they 
will doubtless offer him a place. During the years 
which he devoted to my child, he gave proofs of 
integrity, capacity, and rare intelligence ; I infinitely 

* She alludes to the troubles of Munich and to the accession 
of Maximillian II. 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 337 

regret no longr^r having him with my son. In the 
midst of the immeasurable disaster which has fallen 
upon our family, one of my most bitter cares, is the 
disability hereafter to recognize the services of so 
many faithful servitors. That affects me most, 
after the thoughts of my sons' future. But Grod, 
who has dispensed to us so great affliction, will still 
be our support and guide. 

If you can send me a reply, I pray you to ad- 
dress me under cover of my mother's name, who is 
also at Ems, where we shall live in absolute retire- 
ment until the bathers drive us away. We are at 
the England Hotel. Adieu, dear professor, I re- 
commend all who are dear to me to your remem- 
brance and prayers. 

Helen. 

The republic appeared to consolidate itself, and 
rendered the perspective of a return to France im- 
possible. On the other hand, Ems ceased to be a 
retreat ; it filled with bathers, and at the same 
time with curious intruders. Among various asy- 
lums offered the princess, she chose Eisenach. She 
retired there with her suite, increased in number by 
the preceptor of the duke de Chartres,M. Courgean, 
and a few domestics. Persons of high rank, who 
previously composed her retinue, came by turns to 
15 



338 MEMOIR OF THE 

Eisenacli, during periods of time more or less long, 
and served her as formerly at tlie Tuileries, NeuiUy, 
and Eu. The marquis de Vins, reader to the 
duchess, and M. Boisimlon, former preceptor to the 
duke of Orleans, who now aided her by his counsels 
in the education of her sons, never left the duchess 
till her death. Thus a veritable French colony 
was formed at Eisenach ; they there scrupulously 
observed the French customs, for the duchess still 
believed that the crisis would soon pass, and she 
wished the young princes to remain in every 
respect faithful to their country. If, in the edu- 
cation of the count de Paris, she did not lose 
sight of the high mission to which he might be 
called, she at the same time did not undervalue the 
advantages to be obtained for her sons by their 
exile. Brought in closer contract with ordinary 
life, they learned to become better acquainted with 
it ; they found themselves in social relation with 
the most varied classes, and studied the customs 
and occupations of the peasants with interest. The 
duchess invited M. Eegnier, his wife and two sons, 
to Eisenach ; the nearness of their ages to that of 
the two princes, and their intellectual development, 
made them suitable companions for them. The 
exiled princess herself gained new strength and life 
at Eisenach ; the beauty and salubrity of the 



DUCHESS OF OELEAI^S. 339 

country, the artistic interest which the renovation 
and decoration of Wartburg offered her, the neigh- 
borhood of Weimar, the residence of her family, the 
society which sufficed to exclude all feeling of soli- 
tude without being a burden, all these advantages 
made this place of abode peculiarly attractive, 
Eisenach, besides, possessed a Catholic church, 
under the charge of a pious and worthy ecclesiastic ; 
this circumstance the duchess particularly valued 
for the sake of her two sons. 

Those who had formerly seen the duchess at 
Paris, surrounded by all the eclat of the rank which 
she occupied, could not help sharing the general ad- 
miration due to her elevation of mind. This senti- 
ment became still more lively, when they saw her 
at Eisenach, deprived of all external pomp, and de- 
spoiled of all the natural resources of her high and 
active intellect. The noble falcon of Schah Behe- 
ram Gour, the great hunter, was magnificent to 
see, when adorned with the golden ring, it proudly 
rested upon the silver-mailed hand of his master, 
seated upon his elegant courser ; but the eye of the 
hunter admired the beautiful bird much more, when, 
released from its golden chaperon, rings, and bells, 
it soared rapidly through the air or majestically 
hovered over the castle battlements. 



34(.' MEMOIR OF THE 



XIX. 

INFOKMATION DERIVED FROM THE BEST SOURCE. 

Much information is derived from tlie letters of 
the duchess addressed to me from various stations of 
her exile ; this may be perceived from the first line 
of the following : 

Eisenach, June 10, 1848. 

Dear Professoe : 

I wrote to you from Eisenach that the German 
Synod had been very clamorous ; from Eisenach, the 
asylum of the holy Elizabeth and of Luther, where 
your letter with its friendly counsel reached me. If 
I have not sooner thanked you, it has been because 
my time was occupied by my correspondence, 
though I do not like in this manner to open the 
wounds of my heart and the agitation of my mind ; 
on the other hand, it is difficult for me to resolve 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 341 

to converse witli you only upon accessory things 
when the great questions of the time exclusively 
occupy both one and the other. This motive how- 
ever ought not longer to allow me to appear un- 
grateful. Permit me to say how much I am touched 
with your words, and how grateful I am for your 
counsel to seek an asylum in Bavaria. That was 
also my first thought ; I had an idea of Wartburg, 
of Bamburg, of Nuremburg ; but in the midst of 
my hesitation, I received from my uncle the kind 
and paternal invitation to come here, and accepted 
his offer. I have then provisionally pitched my tent 
under his direction and feel as happy as one can 
feel in exUe ; I find the country as beautiful as it 
can appear to eyes blinded with tears, and I am 
the object of an affection as welcome as is possible 
to a broken heart, which sighs after its country. 
My mother's presence is a subject of consolation ; in 
her, I have a model of noble sentiments and piety ; 
I have a happy pledge for the future in the develop- 
ment of my children ; my heart then ought to 
cease to suffer, but Grod alone can calm it ; I await 
this benefaction from him, and submit myself blind- 
ly to His will. Do we know what is in reserve for 
the morrow ? Why then do we torment ourselves ? 
Tell my cousin, the queen, how much I was 
rejoiced at her happy deliverance, and instantly 



342 MEMOIE OF THE 

recommend my faithful P to her. If I knew 

how to place him as he merits, there would be a 
much less weight upon my heart. I know that this 
presents some difficulties ; I do not wish to be im- 
portunate. 

Salute the brave B , also his wife, if you see 

her, I still remember the visit they made me at 
Eu. What an abyss between then, and now. May 
Grod shield you and grant to you and Mrs. Schubert 
happier and sweeter days than those in which we 
live. I recommend myself with my children to 
your prayers. 

Helen. 

At the time this letter came to me, I received 
another from a lady of high rank, who was daily 
witness to the family life at Eisenach. She paints 
the two princes in strong colors ; the count de 
Palis, then ten years of age, with a tall and well 
developed figure, graceful in his movements, easy 
in his bearing, ingenious in his reflections, of a 
sound mind and quick understanding. " His pre- 
ceptor, to whom he is much attached, possesses 
all the gifts requisite for the exercise of the happi- 
est influence upon the development of the prince. 
He climbs the mountains of the environs with his 
pupil, makes him collect and press the flowers sent 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 343 

to him from Paris to be classed by M. Germain, 
who taught the prince botany. An observer who 
should attentively notice the deep blue eyes of the 
count de Paris, and his regular features, in which 
goodness of heart, thoughtfulness and intelligence 
are depicted, would soon see that he is no ordinary 
child. 

" Eobert, eight years of age, who still loves to 
be called little Eobert, is large enough for his age, 
but always so forward that I believe I have never 
seen so active a child. He develops happily, as 
well with regard to his disposition as to his intel- 
lect. His voice is of a penetrating strength ; his 
blue spiritual eyes animate a physiognomy whose fine 
traits remind one of those of the queen Maria An- 
toinette, at his age. The affection of the two chil- 
dren for their mother is touching ; how else could 
life be rendered supportable to her ! " 

After two letters written by the duchess of Or- 
leans from Ems and Eisenach, came the following 
letter, from which I have abstracted several pas- 
sages : 

Eisenach, March 6, 1849. 
I have long wished to thank you, dear professor, 
for the precious letter I received from you in the 
month of November of the last year, and for the 



344 MEMOIE OF THE 

inclosed one addressed to my eldest son, who was 
moved and rejoiced with it ; we are now zealously 
studying the little book which accompanied it, with 
the German lessons which I give him. My corre- 
spondence is unhappily such that it is impossible 
for me to fulfil all my obligations ; and hence a 
second letter from you has^ome to me, to which I 
reply much later than it was my desire to. 

(She again expresses her solicitude for the faith- 
ful valet-de-chambre of her youngest son, and her 
gratitude for what had already been done for him by 
the obliging intercession of queen Maria.) 

The letter you had the goodness to write to my 
little Paris, deeply interested me. He has been 
acquainted with you from his earliest infancy, as 
one is acquainted with a legend ; the rod from the 
burning bush, the rose of Sharon, the bull-bull, un- 
happily so early dead, and finally your natural his- 
tory and the many stories of which you have been 
the subject, have established a mysterious bond be- 
tween you and his young imagination. A letter 
from his invisible friend, has, then, appeared to him 
as a marvel from fairy-land ; the numerous and ex- 
cellent works which you recommend to him, will 
become his delight, little by little. He already 
strongly likes Plutarch, and knows it almost as well 
as his catechism ; it is only the school of great 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 345 

meiij that can now elevate him. At an epoch in 
which humanity has fallen so low, it is very neces- 
sary to direct his attention to the pas fc, in order that 
he may not lose his faith in humanity. May he see 
hetter days, when the storms which surround us 
shall be calmed. My mother, near whom I am now 
writing, begs me cordially to salute you. How 
many times we speak of you, and how we wish for 
a visit from the pilgrim in our Thuringian hermi- 
tage. 

Helen. 

If the letters we have read have already given us 
some idea of the kind of life and feelings of the duch- 
ess during the sojourn at Eisenach, we have still more 
minute information upon this subject. The duchess 
sought to introduce the domestic arrangement and 
spirit which formerly reigned at Friedensburg into 
her new retreat. When she was alone or with her in- 
timate friends, she frequently occupied herself with 
the same subjects which had been the charm of the 
Friedensburg circle. She frequently recalled a relig- 
ious poem, which was there particularly liked, and 
which is to be found in the excellent work, entitled : 
" Life of J. M. Sailer Feneherg." It had there 
produced such a profound impression that is was set 
to music, and the choir of Friedensburg frequently 
15* 



346 MEMOIR OF THE 

and willingly sung it. One may well say, that of all 
the persons composing that little choir, the princess 
Helen best understood the words of that Christian 
poem, and sung the melody with the most soul. At 
Paris, in moments of leisure, hut oftener at Eisen- 
ach, she loved still to sing it, for the experience of 
her heart had taught her the deep meaning of that 
energetic and consoling poem of the good Feneberg. 

The duchess of Orleans had occasion to apply 
it so frequently in the course of her life, that it had 
become a sort of rallying word with her. A poem 
by bishop Spangenberg was also as an amulet to 
her soul, when she was engaged, in consequence of 
her political or religious position, upon the some- 
what winding path of human wisdom. This poem 
is entitled, " Sacred Simphcity, the Manual of 
Grace ; " she frequently read it in the evenings at 
Eisenach, as at Friedensburg. 

Thus, at Eisenach, when the work of the day 
was ended, they closed their eyes in peace and re- 
pose of soul ; and, in the morning, opened them 
with a disposition of heart not less calm and peace- 
able. 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 34T 



XX. 

CONSOLATIONS AND NEW TRIALS. 

A STRIKING proof of tliG general consideration 
whicli the ducliess of Orleans enjoyed, was given by 
the people of Paris, in the midst of the whirl of the 
revolution of February. The mob penetrated into 
most of the apartments of the Tuileries, and even 
into some of those reserved for the duchess' suite ; 
but they were not besought to spare the Maison Pa- 
vilion, which she inhabited, for garlands were already 
hung over her doors, in sign of respect. Her femme- 
de-chambre was afterwards able to enter, and with 
the aid of her faithful friends, to take away all that 
belonged to her mistress. A part of her possessions 
were sent to Eisenach ; the furniture that was too 
heavy to transport was placed in a chamber rented 
for the purpose. Thus the duchess preserved all 
her articles inviolate^ and she soon found herself sur- 



r348 MEMOIE OF THE 

rounded by all the portraits, pictures, and other ob- 
jects which were of great price to her, reminding her 
of happier days. She also afterwards received her 
dowry, which, in accordance with the French law, 
could not be taken from her. 

On the 24th of February, 1849, the day of the 
anniversary of the revolution, the marquis de Mor- 
nay came to Eisenach, which was the object of a 
constant pilgrimage. If the duchess was happy in 
these testimonies of affection and sympathy, she 
found herself in a constant state of over excitement 
which affected her health, already shattered by so 
many storms. She was nevertheless able to face the 
rigors of the winter without danger, and to be a 
spectator to the diversions of the young princes 
when they skated upon the pond at the foot of the 
Wartburg. 

She took a still more active part in the exer- 
cises and occupations which were destined to 
strengthen, not her physical, but her intellectual 
life. Though the care of her health made it her 
duty to prolong her nightly repose, she never neg- 
lected to call her sons around her for morning wor- 
ship. Family prayers were followed by conversa- 
tions, in which the lively faith of the duchess made 
such a deep impression upon her children that it 
will be forever graven upon their hearts. Their 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 349 

differences of worship never produced evil conse- 
quences ; slie listened witli interest to the religious 
lessons given to her children by a worthy Catholic 
ecclesi^istic ; and her Lutheran faith^ at once firm 
and conciliating, inspired such profound respect in 
the priest, that he, perhaps of all the members of 
the clergy, after the death of the duchess, most 
forcibly recalled what she had been and what she 
had done. 

In the summer of 1849, she saw all her Mecklen- 
burg relations at Leipsic ; in the month of March, 
1850, she went to Schwerin and Ludwigslust. Af- 
ter having traversed Meiningen, which reminded her 
of hours passed in the family of the ducal mansion, 
and after having at Coburg enjoyed the domestic 
pleasures of her dear sister Clementine, she went 
with her and her brother-in-law to the good old city 
of Nuremberg, It was in the month of April, 
1850. She wished her sons to see the city which 
had been so dear to her in her childhood ; she 
showed them every thing, the churches, the beauti- 
ful fountains, Albert Durer's house, and the manu- 
factories. From Nuremberg, she went to Wurtz- 
burg, where she made personal acquaintance with 
the nephew of her maternal friend, Madame de 
Both ; she visited Frankfort Museum with a par- 
ticular interest, and descended the Ehine in a 
steamboat, to proceed to England. 



350 MEMOIK OF THE 

She was called thither by the duty of accom- 
panying count de Paris, who was to take his first 
communion under the eyes of the royal family. A 
chapel in which Louis Philippe had. offered his de- 
votions, during his first exile, was designated for 
this solemnity ; he was then in the vigor of youth, 
and the future was unfolding itself before him ; 
now he entered, sustained by General Dumas, and 
bowed under the weight of years and cares. He 
was followed by the queen, whose step was firm, 
and eye serene. The loss of a throne for which she 
had never been ambitious, had not troubled her ; a 
heart sanctified by the love of God had no regrets 
for the smoking ruins of a terrestrial happiness ; 
she had in Him a sure refuge, which satisfied all 
her desires. After the queen, came the duchess of 
Orleans, with her children and the rest of the fami- 
ly. The entire chapel was filled with friends ; 
twenty youths of the same age as the count de 
Paris, occupied the first seat near the altar. They 
presented a precious gift to the prince, which was 
placed upon the altar.* 

" Who could contemplate," said an eye-witness, 
" without emotion, that mother, whose tearful eyes 
rested upon her sons as if she would envelop them 

* Allusion is also here made to the administrations of 
Abb6 Guelle, and CarJiiial Wiseman, at this ceremony. 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 361 

with lier look of love, wHle she was there upon her 
knees, and while her countenance bore the expres- 
sion of innocence, humility, and devotion ? " The 
sobs of the spectators were not even stifled by the 
sound of the organ. The prince's nurse came ex- 
pressly from France to witness this ceremony. 

Several persons, who had not seen the royal fam- 
ily since the days of its prosperity, found, that of aU 
the members which composed it, the duchess of 
Orleans was the least changed and bowed down. 
She was adorned for this fete, as in the period of 
her prosperity ; the expression of her countenance, 
was as always, sweet, benevolent, and spiritual. 
She then wrote to a friend : 

'' One often still feels so young and so sym- 
pathetic when one does not dream of years already 
left behind in the distance. But God and time 
incessantly influence us. Ah ! what a capricious 
thing is life, and how much more capricious the 
heart of man is. God must have much, much 
patience with regard to us." 

The duchess, in successively visiting her re- 
lations in Germany, seemed to be bidding adieu to 
her country. She expresses this sentiment in some 
passages of her letters, and her arrival in England 
was soon to be followed by trying adieus. 



352 MEMOIK OF THE 

The failing of Louis Philippe's health could not 
escape the notice of any one who had occasion to 
see him at certain intervals, and above all during 
his sojourn in England. The memhers of his family, 
who were constantly with him, did not observe it to 
the same extent. His firm confidence in himself, 
which never abandoned him in the midst of all the 
dangers and vicissitudes of his reign, was shaken on 
the 24th of February, the time of the unexpected 
disaster, with which it had pleased God to strike 
his house. Upon his departure from Paris he pro- 
ceeded to Dreux, where the ashes of his father re- 
posed, and finally embarked for England.* 

The duchess of Orleans wrote at this time as 
follows : 

" This year has so impoverished me, that I have 
often trouble to shake off the thoughts which op- 
press and harass me, so as to prevent the loss of 
all freshness of spirit. But this is speaking of 
myself and my grief. Does not the queen set me 
an example of spiritual strength and celestial resig- 

* Mention is here made of the sojourn at Olaremont, and of 
Louis Philippe's death ; the much fuller account given in the 
first part of this volume, warrants the omission here. The 
death of the qneen of the Belgians is here simply alluded to. 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 353 

nation ? Ought I to bear my cross less courage- 
ously than she ? " 

The duchess passed the winter in England near 
the mourning royal family. The grand-duchess 
wrote to me in January, 1851 : " Helen loves to 
frequent the Grerman Lutheran church in London, 
where she enjoys the preaching of an ecclesiastic 
who officiates alternately with the aged pastor, 
Steinkopf, now eighty-four years of age." 

The new events which passed in France in 
1851, soon announced the thick clouds which often 
troubled the serene horizon of the duchess. 

" The repose," wrote she, " that I loved so 
much to find in a tranquil retreat, in a complete 
oblivion of the outward world, and of odious poli- 
tics, that repose, I cannot obtain, because the 
troubles of our poor country, the hopes of some, 
the follies of others, and the stupidity of the ma- 
jority, disturb me too much, and give my thoughts 
no relaxation. I keep occupied, try to divert my- 
self with music, walk often, and am frequently with 
my relatives, but my heart cannot be calmed. God 
only can render peace, and I have the firm hope 
that he will." 

The following passages of another letter prove 
to what extent she knew how to find the source of 
that inward durable peace : 



354: MEMOIR OF THE 

" Gratitude towards God, is of all feelings the 
one that I love the most. That outpouring of the 
soul, does it not attract us powerfully towards Him, 
and does it not often establish a more intimate re- 
lation than grief? And is there a greater grief 
than impotence to render thanks in the midst of 
prosperity ? Is there any thing more withering to 
the heart than ingratitude ? No ; I love to out- 
pour the gratitude with which my heart is filled 
towards Him, to whom I owe every thing, towards 
my neighbors and friends, who afford me so many 
delights ; towards my enemies, shall I add, for they 
show me the reverse of life, and press my heart to 
seek the aid of God, more and more. I now com- 
prehend the double sense of the words, ' Bless those 
who curse you/ But I should be a hypocrite, if I 
said, that I have learned to be grateful towards them. 
I simply confess that they merit gratitude, and that 
in saying, ' Forgive them. Father, for they know not 
what they do,' I should heap coals of fire upon their 
head. Behold how I have passed, without transi- 
tion, from my best friends to my most bitter perse- 
cutors." 



DUCIIESS OF OKLEANS. 36i) 



XXI. 

A FORETASTE OF THE TERROES OF DEATH. 

When tlie heart is in the state described in 
the previous letter^ it can calmly face the terrors 
and judgment of death. It was reserved for the 
duchess to experience them, before the moment 
assigned in the ordinary course of nature, when God 
calls man to appear before Him. In the crisis to 
which I allude, the duchess passed through all the 
agonies of the dark valley through which the dying 
one enters another world, the splendors of which she 
had for an instant gained a glimpse. It is for this 
reason that she afterwards left this world without 
contest, without seeing the approach of death, or 
feeling its bitterness ; she had already passed 
through this trial ; she had wrestled with death, 
and only prevailed after having said, like Jacob to 



356 MEMOIR OF TlIK 

the angel, " I cannot let thee go, unless thou hless 
me." 

At the end of the year 1852, and in the begin- 
ning of the following year, grave events, which fol- 
lowed the grief of the royal family, filled the heart 
of the duchess with agitation. I speak of the coup 
d'etat of the 2d of December, and of the confisca- 
tion of the property of the Orleans family, which 
further aggravated the sentence of exile. The ma- 
terial loss scarcely affected the duchess, but she 
was under the weight of another afl&iction, which 
opened an abyss between her and the future of her 
life. " One should not be astonished by it," wrote 
the grand-duchess, " she is attached as by a charm 
to the country which repulses her. But the Lord 
will deliver her from this charm. He already be- 
gins to do so." 

Her health had been very much shattered for 
some time. Physicians prescribed a journey into 
Switzerland. Her noble mother wrote to me on the 
8th of August, 1852 : 

" Helen is now at St. G-ervais, upon one of the 
heights at the foot of Mont Blanc, in order to 
breathe the pure air of the country and to strength- 
en her nerves. Her health does not inspire serious 
disquietude. The children, who must have grown 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 357 

much, climb tlie surrounding mountains witli the 
goats ; they love Nature and their studies. May 
the Lord grant them all His benediction." 

The innocent enjoyment of these solitary walks, 
was habitually disturbed by the presence of persons 
who seemed to be spies attached to the steps of the 
duchess and her suite. Her strength of soul was to 
be put to a most rude test ; she Avas to look death 
in the face, and was to be saved only by the hand 
of God. Upon the route from Geneva to Lausanne, 
the closed carriage in which she was with her two 
sons, received such a violent shock, that it was 
overthrown and precipitated into a river. The 
duchess had her collar-bone broken ; but, forgetting 
her pain and the approach of death, which seemed 
certain, she thought with anguish of her children, 
who were already safe, while she was under the 
water. She makes allusion to this deliverance in a 
letter which she addressed to me after her return to 
England. I give it entire, for it mirrors the calm 
of her soul. 

KiTTLEY, Devonshire, January 15, 1853. 
It is with a true emotion, that I recognized your 
hand-writing and opened the book which you sent 
me as a souvenir of the past. You should have 



358 MEMOIR OF THE 

sooner received the expression of my gratitude, if 
tlie journey of that volume had heen easier and less 
slow ; but I have only been in possession of it for a 
few days, I have already read your interesting 
narrations to my sons, and they have been happy 
that one who sent the bull-bull and Moses' rod 
from the desert, had not forgotten them. 

You have the marvellous gift of making the 
most noble cords of my soul vibrate ; your letter 
has not only awakened within me, that remem- 
brance of the past, in which dreams were golden 
and hopes full of life, but it is still a voice which 
speaks to me of that future without end, where 
dreams will become truths, and where hopes, faded 
here below, will bloom anew. I again, from the 
depths of my heart, offer you my thanks for all the 
affectionate sympathy of which your letter gives me 
proof. 

I deeply regret that during my frequent ex- 
cursions in Grermany, I had never the pleasure of 
again pressing your hand, and of hearing the voice 
which cradled my infancy with such pretty legends, 
and which afterwards, by the aid of the pen, led my 
intellect to enjoy the most serious truths. We have 
sometimes no need to see you, in order to hear you ; 
and thus, dear professor, (permit me still the old 
title,) I have not seen you since my sixteenth year ; 
yet have not ceased to love and respect you. 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 359 

You are, without doubt, riglit ; some tempests 
have passed over us ; and, in the course of the ten 
past years, I have from the depths experienced the 
bitterness of hfe. The short period of my happi- 
ness wo s very beautiful, too much without parallel ; 
it has been necessary for me to expiate for it. But 
it is above all in the midst of these hard tests that 
I have sensibly experienced the grace and patience 
of the Lord, Latterly again, when His arm guard- 
ed my children in danger and saved me from a 
death which appeared inevitable, without hope of 
succor, I had the very evident proof of His power 
and goodness ; I have learned to regard my life as 
a gift of his love and to appreciate the value of 
what I have so often found bitter and painful. 
May this feeling contribute to the glory of God, 
and to the salvation of my dear children ! 

If you would from time to time give me tidings 
of yourself, you would give me great pleasure. 
Make my cordial salutations to queen Maria, who is 
so dear to me, and believe me with faithful attach- 
ment, your former pupil, 

Helen. 

I left the recital of this deliverance of the duch- 
ess of Orleans to my friend Schelling in Berlin. I 
knew his respect and affection for the princess, with 



360 MEMOIE OF THE 

whom he had personal acquaintance at Eisenach ; I 
knew the sympathetic part he took in her destiny. 
In addressing me on the 8th of March, 1853, before 
the last letter received from his hand, he called the 
duchess of Orleans " the most sorely tried woman 
of our epoch," and added a prophetic word with 
regard to her children. May it he realized in all its 
extent. 



DUCHESS OF OKLEAI^S, 361 



XXTI. 

NEW PILGRIMAGE. 

The duchess was obliged to pass several weeks 
at Lausanne, until lier fracture permitted lier to re- 
turn to England ; though, she was much weakened 
by physical and mental suffering, she wrote to her 
friend : 

" May the will of Grod be accomplished in me, 
for his glory and my salvation ; may the mysterious 
paths through which he leads me, purify my soul 
and render me capable of fulfiling my maternal 
duties ! " 

" My children prosper," wrote she at another 
time ; '* they live happily in the midst of youthful 
dreams, and grow strong in body and mind. I 
hope soon to be able to accompany them to Eng- 
land, whither I have an ardent desire to go. Ke- 
pose, repose, isolation from all politics, that is what 
I have need of as well as pure air." 
16 



362 MEMOIK OF THE 

As she could not escape political agitation in 
the circle in which she lived, she took refuge for 
several weeks in the mountains of Scotland, and 
regained new strength in the bosom of that grand 
nature, of which she understood the charm. She 
again took up the pencil and the pallet which she 
had for so long a time neglected, and set about de- 
signing pretty landscapes after nature, in company 
with Madame de Vins, her reader, a lady endowed 
with distinguished talents. 

She finally arrived in her much longed for Eng- 
land, but grief thither also pursued her. The 
duchess of Altenburg, her sister, like her, lost her 
husband ; this death painfully affected the duchess 
of Orleans, though habituated to such blows by so 
many cruel separations. The loyal character and 
sound religious principles of duke George, had ren- 
dered him dear to the duchess, as to all those who 
intimately knew him. She suffered much physically 
during the winter, but she only the more actively 
concentrated her strength of mind upon the educa- 
tion of her children. Count de Paris, at this epoch, 
received a military tutor, in the person of G-eneral 
Trezelle. 

" Paris,'' wrote she, some time after, " passed a 
brilliant examination ; Kobert passed his at Easter, 
and bore it bravely. 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 363 

She introduced her sons into the circle of her 
relations, by accompanying them to Eudolstadt, 
lena and Eisenberg, where, in August, 1854, she 
became godmother to her sister's little grand- 
daughter. Her mother, the grand-duchess, who 
had been twice deeply afflicted in the space of two 
months, again at Kudolstadt, lost the last of her 
sisters, to whom she had been devotedly attached. 
The duchess hastened to join her, and finally ac- 
companied her to Eisenach. She now especially 
felt- the blessing of possessing such a mother, since 
death had made new ravages in her circle of friends, 
for she had learned of the sudden deaths of the 
minister Verney and Mademoiselle de Eantzau. 

'^ Let us be more nearly united," she wrote to 
her friend, "and as soldiers, who in battle seeing 
their comrades fall around them, press together in 
the ranks, in order that the vacancy may not be 
perceived." 

She expresses to me in the following manner 
the happiness she experienced in having her mother 
preserved to her : 

" Of all visits, the dearest is that made at this 
time by my beloved mother ; my heart is filled 
with an ever new gratitude. The clearness and 
vigor of her mind charm all who see her, and her 



364 MEMOIR OF THE 

heart is still so young, so loving, that it gives life 
to the most indifferent." 

The war in the Crimea was a new source of 
grief to the duchess, for the sons of a great number 
of her friends in France, had fallen upon the bloody 
field of battle. Count de Paris, among others, fol- 
lowed each scene of the military drama with as 
lively an interest as if the troops were still under 
the orders of his grandfather. He acquainted him- 
self with the towers and forts of Sebastapol, and the 
respective positions of the armies, as if they were 
under his own eyes. 

" We sigh after peace ; may God grant it to 
us ; otherwise no one will return," wrote the 
duchess. 

Sympathy for the consequent sufferings of this 
war, showed itself in the minutest circumstances. 
The sons of her valet-de-chambre fell before Se- 
bastapol ; in the coat-pocket of one of them was 
found a Napoleon, which was sent to his parents 
with his clothing. The duchess added a gold ring 
to this piece of gold, that the soldier's mother might 
wear it in remembrance of her son. She several times 
went to see this grief-stricken woman. 

During the winters of 1854 and '55, the duchess 
had frequent trouble with her eyes, which did not 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 365 

diminisli tlie pleasure with which she welcomed the 
visit of some friends from France. " Helen is calm," 
wrote her mother, "though it costs her much to 
feel that her sons have no other perspective than 
the isolation of exile for the rich development of 
their faculties." The duchess addressed the fol- 
lowing letter to me at the same epoch, and its tone 
and contents confirm this ohservation. 

Eisenach, January 9, 1855. 
For a long time, dear master and friend, I have 
desired to express my gratitude, and to tell you how 
much I am touched with each proof of your re- 
membrance. I will not permit this return of the 
year to pass without acquitting the debt of my 
heart, and without thanking you for the gift you 
sent me. Your work* always makes me serene, and 
the remembrances of our childhood furnish me with 
an abundant subject for meditation. My dearly 
beloved mother also enjoys this book very much, 
and I have often found her engaged in reading it. 
It has a charm for her that old age knows how to 
appreciate, namely, that of refreshing the impres- 
sions of childhood ; but, besides that, she can still 
sound the most profound passages as formerly, and 
foUow the most delicate reasoning. She is admi- 

* The first volume of the author's biography. 



366 MEMOIK OF THE 

rable ! You would be rejoiced and astonished at 
her ideas, so fresh, and so striking upon the most 
important points. She has maintained a rare lu- 
cidity which even reacts happily upon her health ; 
and notwithstanding all the suffering which has 
assailed her these latter years, her heart has still 
infinite elasticity. I am very thankful for having 
her near me, and I feel that God not only preserves 
her to us, but that He gives her.ifo me. Her 
presence is of inestimable value to my dear chil- 
dren. 

My dear professor, (for I must retain that old 
name,) accept my best wishes for the year 1855, 
and keep me, in turn, in your good remembrance, 
to which I closely cling. 

Helen. 

In the spring of the same year, the king of 
Saxony, who came to Thuringia to make several 
family visits, also passed to Eisenach. There was 
a double spiritual tie established between the 
duchess and himself, which arose from a conformity 
of trials and consolations. Indeed, what analogy 
was there not between the sad accident which put 
an end to the days of the duke of Orleans, and the 
event of the 9th of August, 1854, which tore king 
Frederick Auo-ustus from the nation to which he 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 367 

was a father ? And if the duchess of Orleans had 
found motives for joy and consolation in the thought 
of eternity, what heart could better understand her 
than that of a j)rince, whose conscience had been 
awakened by Dante's poem upon Eternity ? Hence, 
in the evening, at the table of the grand duke, who 
had accompanied his host to Eisenach, the duchess, 
seated by the side of the king, experienced the 
sweet satisfaction of understanding and being un- 
derstood. What chiefly struck one in the prince, 
was not only his fine expression, high culture, and 
varied knowledge, but a depth of feeling which 
awakened unlimited confidence. 

On the 23d of May, the king again made a visit 
to the duchess, before he departed for Meiningen, 
and invited her to visit him in Dresden, with her 
children and suite. The duchess accepted this in- 
vitation with pleasure, and, several weeks after, went 
to Dresden, where the royal family welcomed her 
with much affection. An excursion made into Saxon 
Switzerland, during the finest season of the year, 
agreeably diverted her. But she was chiefly happy 
in seeing her sons as interested in works of art as 
she had been when in her youth at Dresden. She 
would have remained a much longer time in that 
city, if the state of her health had not suddenly 
forced her to shorten her visit. She hastened to 



368 MEMOIE OF THE 

return to Eisenach, where she received the care of 
the grand duchess, who "hastened to her hed-side ; 
the physicians counselled her to try the waters of 
Pfeffers. A letter from the grand duchess, on the 
13th of July, says with regard to this subject : 

" Grod he praised ! Helen is preserved to us, 
hut she is still suffering. She will then go to 
Kagatz, which is a branch establishment to Pfef- 
fers. May the Lord bless this remedy ! We set 
out on Monday and go together as far as Giessen ; 
from there she proceeds to Switzerland and I to 
Hamburg. To-day, the 13th of July, the anniver- 
sary of our common grief, we have been to take the 
communion, the children in their church, we in 
ours, but all reunited in the same spiritual com- 
munion. The two children, the eldest one particu- 
larly, were deeply moved. They develop, intellec- 
tually, so happily that all around them are rejoiced. 
The same may be said of their bodies ; the count 
de Paris has the figure of a man ; he is very slen- 
der, but strong, graceful, and adroit in his move- 
ments, calm and modest in his nature. The duke 
de Chartres also grows ; he learns well, and has a 
vivacity altogether French. Both so passionately 
love their mother, that one is touched and happy 
at the sight of their affection. Surrounded by the 



DUCHESS OF OKLEANS. 369 

purest and most innocent delights of childhood, 
they know, thanks to God, neither ennui nor re- 
gret," 

The following winter, the state of the duchess 
was insupportable ; without heing ill, she had not 
recovered her health. She then addressed me a 
letter, the contents of which refer to the part of my 
autobiography which concerns my sojourn at Meck- 
lenburg. (Vol. 3, first Part.) 

This letter is full of fine allusions to the situa- 
tion of the country and the court at that epoch ; 
these allusions are only of importance to him who 
has the key to them. She takes, she says, a lively 
interest in remembrances concerning her brother 
Albert and the years she passed with him in her 
early childhood. 

The duchess again resolved to go to the waters, 
during the beautiful season of the year 1856. This 
time she chose Soden, not far from Frankfort, be- 
cause she could frequently see her mother, who 
was then in the vicinity, at Hamburg. The phy- 
sicians, persuaded that a prolonged sojourn in a 
milder climate alone would reestablish her health, 
entreated her to pass the winter in Italy. Their 
counsel was good ; the duchess so tried by many 
afflictions, had need to summon the strength of her 
16* 



3T0 MEMOIR OF THE 

heart and soul for the last contest which awaited 
her ; Italy, rather than any other country, offered 
the repose of which she had need. 

" In this delightful country," wrote she to her 
friend, " I feel animated by a new life ; I am ro- 
bust and more cheerful than I have ever been since 
I commenced to suffer," 

If this little work was to be but an agreeable 
recreation, I could not better attain that end than 
by publishing the letters written by the duchess of 
Orleans to her mother, during her sojourn in Italy 
in 1856-57. But as these letters do not directly 
enter into the frame which I have made, I confine 
myself to indicating the names of the countries 
through which she passed, and the cities where she 
sojourned. Those of my readers who have made 
the same journey, will scarcely have trouble to 
place their impressions in unison with those of the 
duchess. 

One who, after a serious malady, has the new 
life which circulates through all the members of 
the body, will understand the animation of the first 
letter, written from Genoa, October 5, 1856. The 
duchess left England about the end of September ; 
on the 2d of October she is at Yerona, crosses the 
plain of the Po by the railroad, and passes the Ap- 
penines. The impression that Genoa produced upon 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 371 

her, with its magnificent situation, its churches, 
its palaces, and its works of art, is so lively and at- 
tractive that she does not mind the mud of its 
streets. The people please her, and the sentiments 
of a portion of the higher class of society are the 
sympathetic echo of her own thoughts. "While she 
is seeking for a country house which corresponds to 
her wants, she goes to see lake Maggiore and the 
lakes of Como and Lugano. She enthusiastically 
describes the splendor of the surrounding country ; 
she dwells complacently upon the cathedral of Lu- 
gano and the Borromean Isles, seen hy the magnifi- 
cent light of the moon. 

From Milan, where the works of art captivate 
her, she passes hy Pavia. returns to Glenoa on the 
27th of October, and soon after occupies a villa near 
Sestra. Seated upon the terrace of that villa, she 
was surrounded by a southern vegetation in the midst 
of winter ; in front of her, she had the azure sea 
and breathed a sweet and welcome air. She was 
surrounded by a circle of acquaintances, attracted 
to her by conformity of principles, rank, and intel- 
lectual culture. These visitors, who always arrived 
by the first conveyance from Genoa and Sestra, 
departed in the same manner in the afternoon, and 
thus left the duchess in the free employment of her 
evenings. This sojourn in Italy, contributed in 



372 MEMOIR OF THE 

various ways to strengtlien the duchess and to de- 
velop the physical strength of her sons. The count 
de Paris passed several weeks in Sardinia in order 
to enjoy the pleasures of the chase. 

The necessities of her heart and mind also there 
found their supply. In a letter of the 31st of 
March, 1857, the duchess describes the benevolent 
establishments and schools of Genoa, in which she 
takes a lively interest. She also writes to the grand 
duchess : '' How many times I have thought of you 
during this good and peaceable week, my dear 
mother. I took the communion on Easter Sabbath. 
Our Genoese preacher, M. Vaucher, is a man of 
faith, whose words deeply touch the heart." 

The duchess left the Gulf of Genoa, on the 8th 
of May. The royal family of Sardinia, who had in- 
vited her to Turin, gave her a cordial welcome. In- 
dependent of the enjoyment still reserved for her 
in the fine arts of Milan, she had the pleasure of 
receiving a visit from the archduke Maximilian in 
that city ; he had obtained the hand of her niece, 
princess Charlotte of Belgium. She finally pro- 
ceeded to Augsburg, passing through Hohenschwan- 
gau, where she occupied the apartments of her re- 
lative, queen Maria of Bavaria. Towards the end 
of May, she found herself at Eisenach, where she 
only wished at that time to sojourn for a few weeks. 



DUCHESS OF OJRLEANS. 373 

She wrote me a letter from there, which, as else- 
where, depicts her heart and mind. 

A sojourn of several years had attached her to 
Eisenach ; the castle in which she lived, was situ- 
ated at the foot of the Warthurg, and contained all 
the souvenirs of happier times, with which she had 
wished to surround herself. It was not only in an 
external sense that she took possession of her resi- 
dence ; she had erected in the hearts of the inhabit- 
ants of the city, environs, and all Thuringia, a 
monument more precious than a dwelling of wood 
and stone, more durable than the short station of a 
wandering life. The materials of this monument 
were works of love, immeasurable consolations to the 
poor and afflicted, and encouragements to youth ; 
it was the pure model of all Christian virtues that 
she offered to those who surrounded her, and even 
to those who heard her life of devotion spoken of. 
Her name was associated with that of the holy 
Elizabeth, whose name had been made popular by 
legend and poetry, and who, at a distant epoch, 
had also inhabited the Wartburg. 

The duchess, who now found herself happier at 
Eisenach than elsewhere, even found in this feeling 
a warning soon to leave this sojourn, and to direct 
her pilgrimage to another station. She was not 
mistaken ; the advanced age of the queen Maria 



374 MEMOIR OF THE 

Amelia, made it lier duty to be more continually 
near her, and slie left Germany for England. Be- 
fore lier departure, slie sent me a letter, accom- 
panied with, her portrait, which is said to he a true 
one ; a copy of it is placed in the commencement 
of this volume. On the 6th of July, 1857, the 
duchess rejoined her family. 

She occupied a country-house in the vicinity of 
Richmond, the property of marquis de Landsdowne. 
In one hour, she could he at Claremont, the resi- 
dence of the queen, and in half an hour, at Twick- 
enham, the possession of the duke d'Aumale. Her 
sojourn at Eichmond was prolonged till the end of 
the lease, when she was forced to take another 
dwelling, which, with its facade of heavy portals 
and sombre columns, resembled a tomb. The 
duchess before entering it, caused its aspect to be 
made less gloomy. 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 375 



XXIII. 

THE END. 

About this epoch, the thought of death was 
not only awakened in the duchess by a mere external 
circumstance, such as the aspect of the facade of 
her dwelling, but it was more than ever habitual in 
her soul. Many subjects which previously inter- 
ested her, she now began to be indifferent to. 
She little by little came to share the sentiments of 
her mother, who shuddered at the bare thoughts of 
" cold, frigid politics," and who did not like one to 
approach the questions of the day, upon which she 
herself maintained a profound silence. In passing 
through Belgium, the duchess of Orleans had been 
obhged for seven consecutive hours to submit to 
conversations of this kind, which had extremely 
fatigued her ; at each station, the same question 



376 MEMOIR OF THE 

presented itself anew, and slie was only delivered 
from it upon setting lier foot upon tlie vessel which 
was to transport her to England, In crossing from 
Calais to Dover, she was assailed by a storm, the 
voice of which was doubtless more powerful than 
that of harangue ; but she was not forced to reply, 
and her part was simply to contemplate it in silence. 
"What she saw at that moment inspired h er with 
serious reflections. While the entire horizon was 
lit up with lightning, and the thunder pealed inces- 
santly in the midst of the clouds, driven by the 
tempest, the sea was more calm than ordinarily for 
this portion of the channel. The noble duchess 
then said : " My soul ought to find itself more and 
more calm in the midst of the storms of politics." 
This she attained. 

Formerly, she cherished the hope of some day 
returning to France, which was so dear to her ; 
now this thought no longer absorbed her. She had 
educated her sons in view of rendering them useful 
and devoted to her country ; she left to Grod the 
care of deciding in what manner their patriotism 
should be turned to profit. 

Soon after the arrival of the duchess in England, 
a new affliction fell upon her heart and prepared 
her for her end. The sudden and so unexpected 
death of the duchess Yictoire de Nemours (Novem- 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 377 

"ber 10, 1857), burst like a thunder-clap wliile tlie 
sky is serene, upon the Orleans family. Let us leave 
the duchess Helen to relate this catastrophe : 

Claremont, Nov. 11, 1857. 

My dear and much beloved mother, you will 
share our affliction. That frightful event 'has para- 
lyzed us. Never did death seize a victim so quickly. 
The ways of God are mysterious ; but life is but a 
valley of bitter tears ! The poor queen ! to submit 
to sucb a blow at her age ! to see tlie happiness of 
her dear son reduced to nothing ! It is too hard. 
And Nemours, so touching in his grief, so profoundly 
afflicted and yet so pious, so resigned — yes, resigned 
to the will of God ! His dear children show much 
heart. Alas ! they loved their mother so much ! 

We are persuaded that you will sympathize 
with our affliction, you, my dear mother, who have 
such heart and who love our family so much ! 

We cannot yet comprehend our misfortune. A 
minute before, our dear Yictoire was so amiable, so 
gay, she spoke of leaving her bed to receive a visit 
from her aunt ; Nemours was below with the queen, 
and Victoire was alone with the nurse ; suddenly 
she leaned gently upon the shoulder of the woman 
and said in a low voice, " Oh ! I am ill ! " She 
was no more ! Nemours, the queen, all ran, and 



oY8 IHEMOIR OF THE 

endeavored in vain to recall her to life ; but, be- 
tween tbe moment when we believed her in a swoon, 
and the one in which the frightful truth flashed 
upon us, there was an abyss of despair. Poor Ne- 
mours was beside himself ; he does not leave the 
chamber where his dear Victoire sleeps. Alas ! she 
has still an expression so sweet, so calm ; she is like a 
broken lily, still so white, so beautiful ; there is shed 
such peace over her features ! one almost believes 
that she breathes, and that she is going to speak ! 
The queen is full of strength and courage ; but she 
often says : " that I was in her place ! " I am 
established here in order to be with her as much as 
possible. My dear children appear very well, and 
show much feeling. Aumale is very useful to Ne- 
mours. Alas ! what a winter is before us, who 
were hoping for some bright days ! 

I am going to give still a few more letters ; we 
shall then see the reflection of the impressions pro- 
duced upon the heart of the duchess by that unex- 
pected blow, and the meditations which it sug- 
gested. 

Richmond, Dec. 24, 1857. 
Deak Mother : 

I write to you upon the evening of a very solemn 
day ; upon the evening which reminds me of se 



DTJCHESS OF ORLEANS. 379 

many proofs of love, goodness, and solicitude which, 
you gave me in my childhood. It is a peaceful even- 
ing, serious, yet cheerful, for it is the anniversary 
of the birth of the Saviour who has ransomed fallen 
humanity, and who consoles and raises stricken hearts. 
The external fete which ravished my childhood, 
has given place to more grave remembrance ; we 
light no trees in our houses, and our children have 
no demonstrative joy as formerly. This year, death 
has cast a veil of mourning over the fete of the na- 
tivity, and over life, and our hearts seek elsewhere 
for joy and consolation. 

We are all seeking to prepare for the holy com- 
munion. This evening, at midnight, the queen 
goes to commune with several members of her fam- 
ily ; to-morrow, early in the morning, will be my 
sons' turn ; afterwards, I shall go to my church in 
London. It is a very solemn thought ; I always 
tremble, and nevertheless, take courage, for the 
grace and mercy of the Lord are inexhaustible. It 
seems to me, dear and good mother, that I need to go 
to you and to read a canticle again with you, in order 
to receive strength, light, and benediction from you. 
My heart is with you in this hour of such a peace- 
ful evening, when each one lives in retirement, and 
when you are in enjoyment of a sweet repose in the 
presence of the Lord, I am assured that you also 



380 MEMOIR OF THE 

tliink of me^ with my dear sons — tliat you ask Grod 
not to withdraw his hand from us, and to bless the 
recent and painful trials which he has allotted us. 
There is, as dear Schubert always repeats, a gift of 
presentiment which never misleads, which draws 
hearts together notwithstanding distances ; hence I 
am now certain that we are near one another, my 
dearly beloved mother ! 

I conclude ; I will write a line to you to-mor- 
row, after my return from London. 

Afteenook of Christmas-day 
I have had a delightful morning, my dearly be- 
loved mother, and I have thought much of you. I 
have returned from London, where I communed 
after having heard the preparatory service and the 
sermon. May God grant me his benediction, and 
above all, holy joy, which, on account of my feeble 
faith, fails me much. If you knew how far my de- 
pression goes, yoLi would be pained. It is'properly 
an evil, and a lack of faith ; but acquaintance with 
oneself always produces this discouragement. 

The good Steinkopf, in his eighty-sixth year, 
was very ill and in bed ; he begged me to come near 
him, and spoke to me with so much heart that I 
was touched. He has always a word upon his lips 
which penetrates the soul. He told me to-day,, 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 381 

that I did not meditate enougli upon the words, 
" Grive thanks." " If God has tried you," he added, 
" you are nevertheless always guided and protected 
by His hand, and He has beside left you many pos- 
sessions. Hope in one who alone is immutable, 
when every thing disappears around you. You are 
acquainted with the nothingness of human greatness, 
the vanity of luxury and the glory of the world ; 
and you are also acquainted with one who is not 
submitted to any change ; hope, then, in Him, and 

lean upon Him." The excellent lady de took 

the communion at the same time with me. We 
returned to Eichmond under a bright spring sun, and 
found my two sons upon our arrival, who had re- 
ceived the host. I am writing to you while they 
are gone to the evening service, which combines the 
vespers and the benediction, and I from time to 
time cast a glance upon the setting sun, which 
tints half of the horizon with purple. I have a 
magnificent spectacle before me, which reminds me 
of the beautiful evenings at Genoa and my timid 
attempts to reproduce that strange color with my 
brush. It is a beautiful and peaceable Christmas- 
eve, in which there would be nothing wanting, if 
you were here, dear mother. 

Another letter, written at the end of 1857, 



382 MEMOIR OF THE 

breathes the same confidence in God, and she seeks 
to raise the veil which covers the destinies of the 
ensuing year. This letter also interests by the 
narration of the gracious reception made at Wind- 
sor to the duchess and her two sons, by the queen 
of England and prince Albert. One sees that she 
is often penetrated by an indefinable melancholy, 
which externally manifests itself by the need she 
experiences of casting herself into the arms of her 
excellent mother. It was not only love for her na- 
tive place that agitated the heart of the duchess ; 
her soul had more profound and elevated aspira- 
tions ; she already felt herself attracted towards 
that eternal country, which seems to reveal itself 
more distinctly to men, when the hour of departure 
seems about to strike. The following letter gives 
us a proof of this ; it is the last I received from her 
hand, and one of the last addressed to G-ermany ; 
for it is three days posterior to that which termi- 
nated the correspondence of the duchess with her 
mother. A few weeks after, the questions which 
she raises and which absorb her, received a dazzling 
solution in eternity, 

Richmond, Easter, April 4, 1858. 

Deae Pkofessok : 

I confide these lines to your grandson, in the 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 383 

hope that the joy of seeing the bearer will give them 
some value. I have long had the intention of writ- 
ing to you, and of thanking you for your kind gift, 
which came to me only lately, but which has not 
the less procured for me a great and durable joy. I 
read your last production * with prolonged interest, 
and have devoted particular attention to the chap- 
ters which treat of death and of that which follows. 
Those leaves could not have found me in a better 
condition than that which followed the sudden death 
of my beloved sister, the duchess de Nemours ; that 
disposition will follow me, I hope, all the rest of my 
life, for it is the fruit of the serious call which has 
been addressed to us all by that unexpected loss. 
The fragility of human life and the variety of inter- 
ests here below have never so seriously struck me as 
in these latter months, though the voice of God has 
been so often heard in my afflicted heart, and the 
strokes from His hand have showed me the insta- 
bility of greatness and the inconstancy of the purest 
earthly happiness. In this state of mind, I ardent- 
ly wished a nourishment which suited the state of 
my soul ; your book appeared to me like a stream 
in the desert ; and it has consoled me by the in- 
structive relation of the experiences of pious men in 
trial or upon their death-beds. A multitude of 

* The first volume of the Author's Collections. 



384 " ' ■ MEMOIR " or' the' 

questions incessantly press themselves upon my 
mind. What does the soul feel at the moment of 
death ? Does it feel itself in the presence of God, or 
does it fall into a kind of lethargy until the hour of 
the resurrection ? Does it suffer at the moment 
when it abruptly leaves the body and the external 
world ? Does it regret those whom it has loved, and 
who weep ? Does it know what they do in this world, 
or are all the ties to earth broken ? Do we love 
only the Lord on high ? and are we entirely absorbed 
in a feeling of adoration, which excludes all other 
feeling, and renders us strangers to what passes in 
the world which we have left ? This is what I ask 
of those for whom I weep and whose image is 
always living before me : but I obtain no response. 
I well know that if God had found it good to satis- 
fy such a natural desire of the heart. He would have 
revealed to us what pertains to the soul after death, 
and would have cleared the sombre mystery of the 
future life ! but this persuasion does not tranquillize 
me, and if I believe that acquaintance with that 
future, ought to remain hidden from us, I shall 
often have an inexpressible desire to have a pre- 
sentiment of it. If this desire appears culpable to 
you, tell me frankly ; if it proceeds from a want of 
faith, God grant to strengthen my faith, that I may 
no longer be absorbed by these questions. 



9 



DUCHESS OF OELEANS. 385 

My sister apprises me that you labor without 
relaxation, very dear professor, and that you will 
soon send us a new work, provided your strength 
does not exhaust itself in this incessant activity, 
and that you remain for a long time upon our poor 
earth, where you are so useful ! This wish your 
grandson, the doctor, will express to you especially 
in my name, I regret that he leaves England. I 
have h«,d pleasure in seeing him and in conversing 
with him, for he appears to he a gifted young man, 
fuU of energy, goodness of heart, and piety ; such 
ought to he the son of your Selma. I cannot tell 
you with what interest I heard many details from 
his mouth concerning all your family. I should 
doubtless enjoy a greater pleasure in seeing you 
again here below, and in expressing to you by word 
of mouth, after forty years, my filial respect. God 
grant me this joy. 

Helen, 

One might say that in writing this letter, the 
duchess not only wished to express in words her 
thoughts upon the uncertainty of life, and upon that 
eternity to which she was so near ; but, that she still 
felt the need of joining a visible pledge of her good- 
will with this last letter of adieu. She said in the 
postscript : 

17 



386 MEMOIE OF THE 

" I pray Madam© de Scliubert to accept a little 
souvenir ; it is a pin, tlie twin-sister of wMcli I 
often wear. As it is very plain, and of sombre 
color, I hope that your wife, who cares little for the 
toilet, will not disdain this modest onyx, and that 
she will sometimes wear it in remembrance of me." 

A few days before the date of this letter, he who 
was charged with it again saw the duchess* in the 
little Lutheran church, where she was taking the 
communion in the midst of the members of the 
community, and thus proved that fidelity to the 
end which was an essential trait of her nature and 
entire life. 

She also had occasion to give a last testimony of 
it, in the accomplishment of her maternal duties.* 

At its departure, the soul often leaves upon the 
countenance, the reflection of the eternal light 
which inundates it the moment it leaves the body. 

Those who had seen the duchess of Orleans for 
the first time saluting her husband at Chalons-sur- 
Marne, again distinguished upon her features after 
death, the same indefinable expression of love, joy, 

* The account here given by Professor Schubert concerning 
the illness of the duke de Chartres, the duchess' care of him, 
her illness, and peaceful death, is almost precisely the same, as 
the one previously given in this volume. 



DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 887 

and hiimilit3\ That fugitive instant of happiness, 
that sweet terrestrial dream, had received its ac- 
complishment ; faith was changed to sight. 

The joy which transports the born blind, when 
in consequence of a skilful operation, he suddenly 
sees himself enveloped in a flood of light, and for 
the first time distinguishes the features of those 
who have tenderly watched over him, is well the 
expression of the greatest happiness which the 
heart of man can contain. But, at the sight of 
the mortal remains of the duchess, our thoughts 
carry us to a happiness which no eye has seen, 
which no ear has heard, and which it has not en- 
tered into the heart of man to conceive, and to the 
inexpressible felicity that Grod has promised to those 
who love Him here below, even that of contemplating 
Him face to face in the midst of the dazzling light 
of the abode of the blessed, and of being admitted 
to that feast of the ransomed which has no end. 



888 MEMOm OP THE 



APPENDIX. 

POEMS BY THE DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 

Herzlich lieb hab ich Dich, o Herr ! 
Ich bitt, wollst seyn von mir nicht fern 
Mit deiner Hiilf und G-naden. 
Die ganze Welt erfreut mich nicbt, 
Nach Himmel und Erden frag ich nicht, 
Wenn ich nur Dich kann haben. 
Und ob mir gleich das Herz zerbricht, 
So bleibst Du doch meine Zuversicht, 
Mein Heil und meines Herzens Trost, 
Der mich durch sein Blut hat erlost, 
Herr Jesu Christ, mein Gott und Herr, 
Mein Gott und Herr ! 
In Schanden lass mich nimmermehr. 

Es ist ja, Herr ! Dein Geschenck und Gab, 
Mein Leib, Seel und Alles, was ich hab 
In diesem armen Leben, 
Auf dass ich's brauche zum Lobe Dein, 
Zum Nutz und Dienste der Nachsteu mein 
Wollst mir Deine Gnade geben. 



DtrCHESS OF OELEANS. 389 

Behi'it mich Herr vor falscher Lehr', 

Des Satans Mord und Lilgen welar, 

In allem Kreuz erhalte micli, 

Auf dass ich's trag' geduldiglich ! 

Herr Jesu Christ, mein Herr und Gotfc, 

Main Herr und Gott ! 

Trost' mir meine Seel' in der letzfcen Notli 

Ach, Herr ! lass Deine lieben En^elein 

Am letzten Ende die Seele mein 

In Abrahams Schooss tragen. 

Den Leib in seinem Sehlafkammerlein 

Gar sanft ohn' alle Noth und Pein - 

Kuh'n bis am jungsten Tage 

Alsdann vom Tod erwecke mich, 

Dass meine Augen sehen Dich 

In aller Freud', o Gottes Sohn, 

Mein Heiland und mein Gnadenthron. 

Herr Jesu Christ, erhore mich, 

Erhore mich ! 

Ich will Dich preisen ewiglich ! 

DAS SCHW^NELIED. 

Kdnnte meines Herzens Sehnen, 
Konnte meine silsse Lust 
Durch der Sprache leises Toneu 
Dringen aus der vollen Brust { 

M^ehtig treibt in mir ein Wehen, 
Dass die Seele mir belebt, 
Unaufhaltsam im Entstehen 
1st die Maoht, die mich durcbbebt. 



890 MEMOIK OF THE 

Mit des Stromes Silberwogen 
Sehn' icli mich — wer weiss woliin ? 
Wie von mag'scher Kraft gezogen 
Scliwane in die Feme zieli'n. 

Doch es tonen Zauberklange 
Tief im Innersten niir zu. 
Eines Engelchors Gesange 
Wiegen mich in siisse Rub : 

" Gliicklicli bist du, Kind der Traume, 
" Dem das Leben froh erscbeint, 
" Scbwingst den Geist in freie Raume, 
" "Wo das Auge nie geweint. 

" "Wie mit goldnen Adlerscbwingne 
" Scbwebst du durcb der Liifte Blau, 
" Lasst dein Lied scbon frrtb erklingen 
" Mit dem bellen Morgenthau. 

" Horcb', des "Weltalls goldue Leier 
" Tonet snsse Harmonie, 
" "Und sie stimmt zur stillen Feier 
" Deine sel'ge Phantasie. 

" Und die ew'gen Lustgestalten, 
*' Deren Reize nie verbliib'n, 
" Deinem Ange sich entfalten, 
" Mocbtest gem mit ihnen zieb'n !" 

DOBBEEAN, 1830, 



DUCHESS OF OKLEANS- 391 

Z U R U F. 

Zieh' dahin wle Silberschwane 
Nacli dem unbekannten Dorf, 
Selbst die still vergoss'ne Thrane 
Schwellt die Fluth und hilft Dir fori 

Fijrchte nie wenn Wogen scbaumen 
An des Felsenthales Rand, 
Schwane Ziehen ohne Saumen 
Nach dem herzbekannten Land. 

Wageu kiihn sich auf die Wogen 
"Wo sie boob und sicher sind. 
Wer das Flacbe sucht — betrogen 
1st ein solcbes armes Kind I 



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